Problem Variables that Promote Incubation Effects

Three studies sought to determine whether incubation effects could be reliably generated in a problem‐solving task. Experimental variables manipulated were the duration of the interval between two problem‐solving opportunities and the activity performed by the problem solvers during the interval. A multi‐solution anagram task was used which required problem solvers to generate five‐letter words from the letters in a ten‐letter “starter” word until they could produce no more words. After a break (the incubation period) the problem solvers returned to the anagram task anew. Some participants also engaged in an activity related to the anagram task during the break which was expected to prime potential solutions that would emerge during the second problem‐solving attempt. In all conditions problem solvers were able to generate new responses after the break, thus demonstrating a reliable incubation effect. The optimal incubation period was between 15 and 30 min long. The priming task increased the number of solutions to the anagram task on the second attempt, suggesting that exposure to solution ideas during the incubation period may facilitate an incubation effect during problem solving.     

Off‐Task Social Breaks and Group Creativity

This study investigates the effect of off‐task breaks, where individuals engage in a collective off‐task activity, on group creativity. Using an experimental method comprising 36 groups of 5 individuals, the relationships between different types of off‐task group break and performance in creative tasks post‐break are explored. When compared to the no‐break case, it is seen that off‐task breaks, in which all individuals participate in the group activity, lead to more original ideas being generated post‐break. On the other hand, individual incubation breaks and self‐organizing group breaks, lead to lower levels of post‐break idea originality when compared with the no‐break case. This research thus highlights the positive benefits of off‐task breaks involving full member participation, on the creative process in groups.     

Examining the relationships between self‐efficacy,task‐relevant attentional control,and task performance: Evidence from event‐related brain potentials

Self‐efficacy (SE) is a modifiable psychosocial factor related to individuals’ beliefs in their capabilities to successfully complete courses of action and has been shown to be positively associated with task performance. The authors hypothesized that one means through which SE is related with improved performance is through enhanced task‐relevant attentional control during task execution. To assess this hypothesis, we examined the relationships between SE and behavioural and neural indices of task performance and task‐relevant attentional control for 76 young adults during the completion of a flanker task. Results showed that greater SE was associated with greater response accuracy and P3b amplitude across task conditions, and faster RT under more difficult task conditions. Additionally, P3b amplitude was found to mediate the relationship between SE and task performance in the difficult condition. These findings suggest that greater attentional allocation to task‐relevant processes, including monitoring stimulus‐response relationships and focusing attention on working memory operations, may help explain the association between SE and improved task performance.     

Cognitive and personality characteristics of worriers

Worriers and nonworriers from a college population were compared on the Imaginal Processing Inventory, the Self-Consciousness scale, and the Sandler-Hazari Obsessionality Inventory. Subjects from both groups also engaged in either brief relaxing or stressful imagery. Before the imagery task, measures of cognitive activity were obtained from periods of relaxed wakefulness, focused attention and anagram performance. After the imagery task, focused attention and anagrams measures were repeated. Worriers reported a more negative daydreaming style, greater difficulty with attentional control, and greater obsessional symptoms, public self-consciousness and social anxiety. On thought sampling measures obtained during relaxed wakefulness periods and rated by objective judges, and on self-report measures obtained during the focused attention task, worriers evidenced significantly more negatively affect-laden cognitive intrusions. No differences were found on anagram performance, and imagery condition did not influence any measure, suggesting that instructed fear images are insufficient to initiate worrisome episodes.     

Investigating the lower level demands of writing: handwriting movements interfere with immediate verbal serial recall

The research identifies if handwriting captures attention for significant periods, resulting in a decline in working memory performance. Additionally, the experiments isolate whether the movements produced during handwriting contribute to that interference. To do this, verbal serial recall was compared between three different tasks???a listening task; a listening?+?handwriting task (i.e., motor and verbal demands); and a listening?+?handwriting-like drawing task (i.e., motor demands), in two experiments. Results showed that verbal serial recall was worse in the handwriting and drawing conditions compared to the listening condition. The handwriting and drawing conditions did not differ. In a third experiment, handwriting fluency was compared between a recall and no-recall task. This showed that handwriting fluency remains stable despite the addition of a verbal working memory task. In conclusion, the handwriting movements capture attention for significant periods, with little deterioration in recall due to the verbal component of handwriting.     

Working Memory Capacity Offers Resistance to Mind‐Wandering and External Distraction in a Context‐Specific Manner

The present study examined the impact of mind‐wandering and distraction in silent and noisy studying environments and how individual differences in working memory capacity offered resistance to these two distinct forms of attention failure. Two groups of participants read a text in different environments and answered reading comprehension questions. While reading, thought probes asked participants to indicate the current focus of their attention. Results showed that the relationship between working memory capacity and reading comprehension was partially driven by resistance to mind‐wandering in the silent condition and by resistance to external distraction in the noise condition. The findings support the distinction between mind‐wandering and external distraction, two separate yet related types of attention failure that impact task performance. Further, executive abilities seem to offer resistance to these two types of attention failure differentially depending on the context. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Eye Metrics: An Alternative Vigilance Detector for Military Operators

Military operators in various environments such as cyber, remotely piloted aircraft, and image analysis are required to use sustained attention or vigilance for long periods. During this time they encounter lapses in attention attributable to the monotonous nature of their tasks. Mistakes during these tasks can have serious consequences. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of an eye-tracker to detect changes in vigilance performance during a simulated cyber operator task. Twenty participants performed 4 sessions of a 40-min vigilance task while wearing an eye-tracker. Blink frequency, blink duration, PERCLOS (percentage of eye closure), pupil diameter, pupil eccentricity, pupil velocity, and signal detection all had a significant change over time (p < .05) during the task. The significant change of oculometric measurements indicates oculometrics could be used to detect changes in vigilance for military operators. Future research is needed to assess real-time effects of these oculometrics on performance, especially in a real-world setting.     

The Effects of Continuous and Intermittent Distractors on Cognitive Performance and Attention in Preschoolers

We investigated the effects of different amounts of distraction on preschoolers’ task performance and attention. Children 3.5 and 4 years of age completed problem-solving tasks in one of three conditions: no distraction, intermittent (periodic) distraction, or continuous distraction. The results revealed differential effects of the distractors at the different ages. The younger group was susceptible to any kind of distraction; task performance and attention were equally impaired during both distraction conditions. The older group was less susceptible to external distraction, with task performance and attention most impaired in the continuous distraction condition. The results are discussed in terms of the relevance of the amount of competition for attentional focus present in distractors and the development of executive functions in early childhood.     

Diversity during training enhances detection of novel stimuli

This research demonstrates that when individuals are expected to detect novel targets, they will be best prepared when trained with diverse categories. Participants were trained in a simulated luggage screening task in one of three conditions of diversity: high (participants searched for dangerous objects belonging to five different categories); low (participants searched for targets belonging to one of the five categories); and no training (control condition). After training, all participants were asked to look for the same novel dangerous objects in the bags. Results show that, during training, the low diversity condition resulted in highest hit rates and fastest response times. In contrast, after training, results were reversed: participants that trained in a high diversity condition were most effective at detecting novel targets. Those with no training at all were equally poor at detecting novel targets as those that trained in a low diversity condition.     

The effects of collaboration and punishment on prospective memory performance in a group setting

Remembering to perform a delayed intention is termed prospective memory (PM). Often delayed intentions are shared by more than one person; however, there is a dearth of studies examining PM in social settings. We aimed to investigate whether the potential consequences of one's behavior across diverse group settings influence PM performance in event‐ and time‐based tasks. A total of 207 participants were randomly allocated to either an individual, collaborative, or collaborative plus penalty motivation condition and were tested in a 2‐ or 3‐person setting. For the time‐based PM task, participants responded less timely in the individual motivation condition, whereas there was no difference between the collaborative motivation conditions. No significant effects were found for motivation condition on the event‐based task or for group size on PM performance. Analyses of ongoing task performance revealed that participants' attention allocation policies change depending on how individuals prioritize the ongoing and PM tasks.     

The relationship between sustained attention and cognitive performance in 17–24‐month old toddlers

The purpose of this study was to investigate individual differences in sustained attention and task performance with toddlers. Participants were 61 17–24‐month old toddlers. Indices of sustained attention (duration of attention and frequency of off‐task glances) were assessed during two 4 min problem solving tasks, and then related to problem solving and the mental scale of the Bayley scales of infant development‐II (BSID‐II). As expected, toddlers who attended to tasks for longer periods of time were more successful at problem solving, and had higher scores on the BSID‐II than toddlers who attended for shorter periods of time. In addition, older toddlers had longer attention spans, more frequent off‐task glances, and were more successful at problem solving than younger toddlers. Interestingly, toddlers with more frequent off‐task glances had longer attention spans, were more successful at problem solving, and had higher BSID‐II scores than peers with fewer off‐task glances. These findings suggest that although behavioural indices can be used to identify sustained attention, the relationship between behaviours thought to capture distractibility and attention is more complex than had been previously assumed. Results are discussed in the context of current theories of infant attention and cognitive performance. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fine and gross motor skills: The effects on skill-focused dual-tasks

Dual-task methodology often directs participants’ attention towards a gross motor skill involved in the execution of a skill, but researchers have not investigated the comparative effects of attention on fine motor skill tasks. Furthermore, there is limited information about participants’ subjective perception of workload with respect to task performance. To examine this, the current study administered the NASA-Task Load Index following a simulated shooting dual-task. The task required participants to stand 15 feet from a projector screen which depicted virtual targets and fire a modified Glock 17 handgun equipped with an infrared laser. Participants performed the primary shooting task alone (control), or were also instructed to focus their attention on a gross motor skill relevant to task execution (gross skill-focused) and a fine motor skill relevant to task execution (fine skill-focused). Results revealed that workload was significantly greater during the fine skill-focused task for both skill levels, but performance was only affected for the lesser-skilled participants. Shooting performance for the lesser-skilled participants was greater during the gross skill-focused condition compared to the fine skill-focused condition. Correlational analyses also demonstrated a significant negative relationship between shooting performance and workload during the gross skill-focused task for the higher-skilled participants. A discussion of the relationship between skill type, workload, skill level, and performance in dual-task paradigms is presented.     

Performance-related activity in medial rostral prefrontal cortex (area 10) during low-demand tasks

Neuroimaging studies have frequently observed relatively high activity in medial rostral prefrontal cortex (PFC) during rest or baseline conditions. Some accounts have attributed this high activity to the occurrence of unconstrained stimulus-independent and task-unrelated thought processes during baseline conditions. Here, the authors investigated the alternative possibility that medial rostral PFC supports attention toward the external environment during low-demand conditions. Participants performed a baseline simple reaction time (RT) task, along with 3 other tasks that differed in the requirement to attend to external stimuli versus stimulus-independent thought. Medial rostral PFC activation was observed in the baseline task and in a condition requiring strong engagement with external stimuli, relative to 2 conditions with a greater requirement for stimulus-independent thought. An important finding was that activity in this region was associated with faster RTs in the baseline task, ruling out an explanation in terms of task-unrelated thought processes during this condition. Thus, at least under certain circumstances, medial rostral PFC appears to support attention toward the external environment, facilitating performance in situations that do not require extensive processing of experimental stimuli.     

Physical activity and cognitive function in a cross-section of younger and older community-dwelling individuals.

Previous reports have indicated a small, positive relationship between physical activity and cognition. However, the majority of research has focused on older adults, with few studies examining this relationship during earlier periods of the life span. This study examined the relationship of physical activity to cognition in a cross-section of 241 community-dwelling individuals 15-71 years of age with a task requiring variable amounts of executive control. Data were analyzed with multiple regression, which controlled for age, sex, and IQ. Participants reported their physical activity behavior and were tested for reaction time (RT) and response accuracy on congruent and incongruent conditions of a flanker task, which manipulates interference control. After controlling for confounding variables, an age-related slowing of RT was observed during both congruent and incongruent flanker conditions. However, physical activity was associated with faster RT during these conditions, regardless of age. Response accuracy findings indicated that increased physical activity was associated with better performance only during the incongruent condition for the older cohort. Findings suggest that physical activity may be beneficial to both general and selective aspects of cognition, particularly among older adults.     

Visual load and variability of muscle activation: Effects on reactive driving of older adults

BackgroundThe functional significance of the increase in motor output variability with increased visual information processing in older adults remains unclear. Here, we test the hypothesis that increased visual information processing increases muscle activation variability in older adults and impairs their ability to react as fast and as precisely as young adults during a simulated reactive driving task.MethodsFourteen young and sixteen older adults performed a reactive driving simulation task that required responding to unexpected brake lights of the car ahead during a simple reaction time task (low visual information processing condition) and a choice reaction time task with “no go” trials condition (high visual information processing condition). We quantified the following: 1) reactive driving performance – combination of premotor response time, motor response time, and brake force error; 2) motor output variability – brake impulse variability; 3) muscle activation variability – variability in the tibialis anterior (TA) muscle activity.ResultsThe increase in information processing exacerbated the impaired reactive driving performance in older adults. The best predictor of this impairment was the increase in brake force error. The impaired reactive driving performance was related to brake impulse variability and variability in the TA activity.ConclusionsThis study provides novel evidence that increased information processing increases muscle activation variability in older adults with detrimental consequences to their ability to perform a simulated reactive driving task.     

Teaching students with ASD: Does teacher enthusiasm make a difference?

There is a general belief that students perform better in an environment in which teachers exude enthusiasm. In elementary, secondary, and college settings, the display of teacher enthusiasm is associated with positive attitudes toward teachers, recall of information, and improved classroom behavior. Although the assumption that students perform better when teachers are enthusiastic is frequently extended to individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is currently no published research on the topic. Research on social avoidance suggests that individuals with ASD may have no reaction or even respond negatively to teacher enthusiasm and thus perform better in conditions of low teacher attention. The current study was conducted to examine the effects of teacher enthusiasm on task performance for 12 students diagnosed with ASD. For each participant, performance on a matching task was measured during a high attention condition and during a low attention condition. Inspection of performance data indicated that out of 12 participants, only one demonstrated better performance under high teacher attention and one demonstrated better performance under low teacher attention. Interestingly, when experimenters who served as teachers in the study were asked to judge student performance, they stated that all students performed better with high teacher attention. Based on the findings of the current study, educators and parents of children with ASD are cautioned against attributing differences or changes in student performance to type and intensity of social attention provided during task instruction in the absence of conducting a functional analysis. Implications from the current study serve as a reminder to avoid oversimplifying the complex learning challenges of children with autism and reiterate the importance of obtaining continuous objective performance data. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of chewing on cognitive processing speed

In recent years, chewing has been discussed as producing effects of maintaining and sustaining cognitive performance. We have reported that chewing may improve or recover the process of working memory; however, the mechanisms underlying these phenomena are still to be elucidated. We investigated the effect of chewing on aspects of attention and cognitive processing speed, testing the hypothesis that this effect induces higher cognitive performance. Seventeen healthy adults (20–34 years old) were studied during attention task with blood oxygenation level-dependent functional (fMRI) at 3.0 T MRI. The attentional network test (ANT) within a single task fMRI containing two cue conditions (no cue and center cue) and two target conditions (congruent and incongruent) was conducted to examine the efficiency of alerting and executive control. Participants were instructed to press a button with the right or left thumb according to the direction of a centrally presented arrow. Each participant underwent two back-to-back ANT sessions with or without chewing gum, odorless and tasteless to remove any effect other than chewing. Behavioral results showed that mean reaction time was significantly decreased during chewing condition, regardless of speed-accuracy trade-off, although there were no significant changes in behavioral effects (both alerting and conflict effects). On the other hand, fMRI analysis revealed higher activations in the anterior cingulate cortex and left frontal gyrus for the executive network and motor-related regions for both attentional networks during chewing condition. These results suggested that chewing induced an increase in the arousal level and alertness in addition to an effect on motor control and, as a consequence, these effects could lead to improvements in cognitive performance.     

Varied Input Stimuli and Motor Learning,

75 apparatus-naive undergraduate Ss were assigned to one of five groups differentiated according to training display associated with a modified rotary pursuit (RP) apparatus. Performance of two control groups, one practicing an unaided reference task and the other a pathmarked RP task, was compared with that of groups that received either path-marked or mechanically guided practice during training, and where path-marked and mechanical guidance display was removed during transfer. It was found that the path-marked display produced superior results only during initial stages of practice, and retarded improvement in performance after transfer to the reference task. Mechanical guidance resulted in better performance on the path-marked condition than the unaided RP task, but in both cases performance dropped upon transfer. The results are discussed in the light of hypothesized learning strategies influenced by different training conditions.     

Most earcons do not interfere with spoken passage comprehension

A cross‐modal dual attention experiment was completed by 198 undergraduates in three blocks that each consisted of an orientation task and a concurrent listening task. For the orientation task, participants located regions on an LCD that were cued by speech or one of four types of symbolic auditory cues (i.e. earcons); the concurrent task required participants to listen to and answer questions about GRE sample test passages. Results indicated the orientation task had no effect on comprehension of the passages compared to a passage‐only control for four of the five auditory cue types. All auditory cues resulted in high performance for the orientation task, with speech and complex sounds exhibiting the highest performance. Implications for auditory display design and for assistive technologies for visually impaired persons are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Beyond unusual? Examining the role of attention in the weapon focus effect

The current study examined whether the weapon focus effect could be accounted for in terms of stimulus novelty. Participants viewed a slideshow of a simulated event while attending to a secondary task. In the critical slide, the target was shown holding a threatening object (weapon condition), a novel object (unusual condition) or a neutral object (control condition). Reaction times on the secondary task were impaired in the weapon and unusual conditions. Participants in the weapon condition had poorest recognition scores for the target's appearance when confidence was also taken into account. Results suggest that while both unusual and threatening objects command attention, the significance of a weapon can lead to impaired performance on less immediately informative aspects of a scene such as target appearance. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.