Visual Attention to Antismoking PSAs: Smoking Cues Versus Other Attention‐Grabbing Features

This study examines how addicted smokers attend visually to smoking‐related public service announcements (PSAs) in adults smokers. Smokers' onscreen visual fixation is an indicator of cognitive resources allocated to visual attention. Characteristic of individuals with addictive tendencies, smokers are expected to be appetitively activated by images of their addiction—specifically smoking cues. At the same time, these cues are embedded in messages that associate avoidance responses with these appetitive cues, potentially inducing avoidance of PSA processing. Findings suggest that segments of PSAs that contain smoking cues are processed similarly to segments that contain complex stimuli (operationalized in this case as high in information introduced) and that visual attention is aligned with smoking cues on the screen.     

Aging and Visual Attention

ABSTRACT— Older adults are often slower and less accurate than are younger adults in performing visual-search tasks, suggesting an age-related decline in attentional functioning. Age-related decline in attention, however, is not entirely pervasive. Visual search that is based on the observer's expectations (i.e., top-down attention) is relatively preserved as a function of adult age. Neuroimaging research suggests that age-related decline occurs in the structure and function of brain regions mediating the visual sensory input, whereas activation of regions in the frontal and parietal lobes is often greater for older adults than for younger adults. This increased activation may represent an age-related increase in the role of top-down attention during visual tasks. To obtain a more complete account of age-related decline and preservation of visual attention, current research is beginning to explore the relation of neuroimaging measures of brain structure and function to behavioral measures of visual attention.     

Influence of Visual and Haptic Cues on Podokinetic After-Rotation

ABSTRACT

Active countercircling on a rotating platform for 15 min causes individuals to involuntarily circle in the same direction when they step in place on firm ground. This is referred to as podokinetic after-rotation (PKAR). It is unclear how interjecting brief periods of visual or haptic inputs for a stable orientation reference affects PKAR. The authors studied this issue in 16 healthy individuals who participated in three sessions each. Following active countercircling, participants attempted to step in place for 30 min on firm ground. In two of three sessions, participants received full visual input or made fingertip contact with a stationary object for 30 s during 30 min of ongoing PKAR. All participants slowed or stopped rotating during the presence of visual or haptic inputs and resumed PKAR after removal of these inputs. Exponential functions fitted to angular trunk velocity versus time plots revealed no significant differences across conditions (p > .05). The preservation of PKAR after brief exposure to a visual or haptic reference is consistent with a slowly decaying velocity storage that is not reset or dumped after exposure to conflicting visual or haptic cues.     

The Impact of Spatial Cues on Preschoolers' Selective Attention

The effects of spatial arrangement on preschool children's ability to selectively attend were investigated. Three- and 4-year old children were shown a multicolored dollhouse room intended to serve as a special place containing miniature chairs and models of animals. One category of objects was designated as relevant and 1 as irrelevant. Relevant items were placed in each of the apparatus's corners or in the middle of its walls. Children in the corners condition correctly relocated more relevant items than children in the wall or control conditions. The findings suggest that for both age groups, the ability to recall relevant items may be independent of their ability to demonstrate a selective attention strategy.     

Detecting Anxiety and Defensiveness from Visual and Auditory Cues

ABSTRACT Defensive individuals have been shown to differ from non-defensive individuals on a number of physiological and behavioral measures. We report two studies on observers' inferences of defensiveness, and the contribution of communication channels in the inference of defensiveness. Observers judged high and low state anxious segments of high and low trait anxious defensive and nondefensive individuals. Accurate assessments were made of (a) defensiveness, (b) state anxiety, and (c) trait anxiety: Individuals with higher levels of each variable were perceived as more anxious compared with the lower level. Effects for defensiveness and state anxiety were greater in audio-only segments, while effects for trait anxiety were greater in video-only segments. Inferences of defensiveness were greater at higher levels of state anxiety and trait anxiety. Low trait anxious defensive individuals were perceived as more anxious than the true low trait anxious. Results for defensiveness and trait anxiety were replicated in Study 2, and observers' perceptions of state anxiety matched individuals' self-reports: Defensive individuals with maximal differences between high and low state anxiety were seen as more anxious in high state anxiety, while defensive individuals with minimal differences between high and low state anxiety were regarded as less anxious in high state anxiety.     

The Relative Effectiveness of External, Peer, and Self-Coaches

Deux recherches poursuivies sur deux continents ont fait appel à deux variables dépendantes différentes pour étudier l’efficacité relative du coach externe, du pair coach et de l’autocoaching sur la performance des participants (maîtrise de gestion). La première investigation concernait trente étudiants en gestion canadiens. Ceux qui étaient suivis par un coach extérieur présentaient une meilleure adaptation au travail collectif que ceux qui avaient un pair pour coach. La seconde recherche portait sur 23 managers en gestion australiens. Ceux qui étaient suivis soit par un coach externe, soit par eux‐même, ont obtenu des résultats significativement plus élevés que ceux qui étaient accompagnés par un pair. Dans les deux études, le coach externe avait aux yeux de l’intéressé une plus grande crédibilité que le pair. Dans la seconde étude, l’autocoaching était mieux vu que le coaching du pair. La satisfaction relative à l’ensemble du processus était plus forte chez les managers pourvus d’un coach externe. Two studies in two different continents using two different dependent variables examined the relative effectiveness of external, peer, and self‐coaches on the performance of participants in two MBA programs. The first study involved MBA students in Canada (n= 30). Those who were coached by an external coach exhibited higher teamplaying behavior than did those who were coached by peers. The second study involved EMBA managers in Australia (n= 23). Those who were either coached by an external coach or who were self‐coached had significantly higher grades than those who were coached by a peer. In both studies, an external coach was perceived by the participants to have higher credibility than their peers. In the second study, self‐coaching was perceived to be more credible than coaching from peers. Satisfaction with the coaching process was highest among the managers who had an external coach.     

The Role of Visual Cues in Movement Control and Motor Memory

3 groups of 12 Ss performed an index finger letter-writing task with visual information but without kinesthetic cues (+V?K), followed immediately by repeating the same letters without vision (?V?K). All groups performed 6 test trials of + V?K, then ?V?K writing. Group 1 had no experience with the task prior to the test trials, Group 2 practiced the letters without vision with kinesthetic cues (?V+K), while Group 3 had visual and kinesthetic practice (+V+K). Visual cues efficiently guided performance in the absence of kinesthesis, and visual memory traces had a marked reinforcing effect. Further, learned reliance on kinesthetic cues was present even in +V?K performance, but reliance on visual cues did not develop.     

Developmental Changes in the Relative Weighting of Geometric and Experience-Dependent Location Cues

This article introduces a promising new methodology called optical imaging. Optical imaging is used for measuring changes in cortical blood flow due to functional activation. The article outlines the pros and cons of using optical imaging for studying the brain correlates of perceptual, cognitive, and language development in infants and young children.     

Metacognitions in Triathletes: Associations With Attention,State Anxiety,and Relative Performance

This study investigated how metacognitive beliefs in triathletes covary with state anxiety dimensions, prior to competition. It also examined how metacognitions relate to concentration, after controlling for state anxiety. Regression analyses revealed that specific metacognitive beliefs were differentially predictive of state anxiety dimensions and concentration. When accounting for the state anxiety variables in a hierarchical model predicting concentration, positive beliefs about worry, negative beliefs about worry, and cognitive anxiety remained as significant predictors. Metacognitive beliefs were also found to differ across time-to-event intervals. Overall, the results demonstrated that a metacognitive framework is a viable pathway for future sporting research.     

Humor in the Eye Tracker: Attention Capture and Distraction from Context Cues

The humor effect refers to a robust finding in memory research that humorous information is easily recalled, at the expense of recall of nonhumorous information that was encoded in close temporal proximity. Previous research suggests that memory retrieval processes underlie this effect. That is, free recall is biased toward humorous information, which interferes with the retrieval of nonhumorous information. The present research tested an additional explanation that has not been specifically addressed before: Humor receives enhanced attention during information encoding, which decreases attention for context information. Participants observed humorous, nonhumorous positive, and nonhumorous neutral texts paired with novel consumer brands, while their eye movements were recorded using eye-tracker technology. The results confirmed that humor receives prolonged attention relative to both positive and neutral nonhumorous information. This enhanced attention correlated with impaired brand recognition.     

The Effectiveness of Sentence Cues in Measuring the Big Three Motives

Despite the popularity of free response measures in the motivation literature, research geared toward the development of a standard battery of cues for measuring the Big Three motives (achievement, affiliation, power) has been lacking. The current research examined the effectiveness of sentence cues in eliciting motive imagery in two studies (students, entrepreneurs) comprising 242 men and women. Results indicated that sentence cues were effective in eliciting achievement and affiliation imagery, but not power imagery. In addition, an examination of the subcategories underlying each motive scoring system indicated that there were several infrequently scored subcategories in the achievement and power motive scoring systems that could be considered for removal.     

Biases in Visual Attention in Depressed and Nondepressed Individuals

Abstract

The present study utilised a cognitive paradigm to examine attentional biases in mildly depressed persons. Twelve depressed and 12 nondepressed subjects completed an attentional task similar to that employed by MacLeod, Mathews, and Tata (1986). A tachistiscope was used to present subjects with a series of word pairs, each with one word printed above the other. Three types of word pairs were presented: manic-neutral, depressed-neutral, and manic-depressed. Selective attention to one member of a word pair was assessed using ac perception task. Based on cognitive models of depression, it was hypothesised that the depressed subjects would attend more to depressed-content words than to manic- or neutral-content words, whereas the nondepressed subjects would not exhibit any attentional biases. In contrast to these predictions, analyses indicated that whereas the depressed subjects attended equally to depressed-, manic-, and neutral-content words, the nondepressed subjects attended more to manic-content than they did to neutral- or depressed-content words. These results add support to the documentation of evenhandedness in the cognitive functioning of depressed subjects, and of self-sewing biases in nondepressed subjects. The present findings are discussed in terms of a zoom lens model of attention, in which depressed persons attempt to exhaustively process their sensory world, but with a loss of attentional resolution. In contrast, nondepressed individuals attempt to process a more limited portion of their sensory world, but with an increase in attentional power. Finally, directions for future research in this area are offered.     

Attention to Visual Feedback in Motor Learning

Visual guidance and movement to a stop were used to train subjects to make a simple movement without experiencing error in practice. Movement to a stop led to test performance as accurate as that after training with KR, but visual guidance did not. If a continuous visual cue as well as a stop were present during practice, subjects also performed less accurately, although they did not need to attend to the visual cue. All types of training were better than no training at all. Results are discussed in terms of the role of visual feedback in the development and assessment of programs for movement.     

视觉注意选择性的空间位置效应的研究

采用注意线索技术探讨颜色、角度和空间位置对视觉选择性注意的影响。研究结果表明 :( 1 )目标与干扰刺激颜色相同时 ,表现出明显的注意空间位置效应 ;( 2 )目标与干扰刺激颜色不同时 ,空间位置效应明显弱化 ;( 3 )整体而言 ,注意加工速度从左到右均表现出明显的“V”字形效应。     

On the Relation Between Visual Spatial Attention and Visual Field Asymmetries

In the typical visual laterality experiment, words and letters are more rapidly and accurately identified in the right visual field than in the left. However, while such studies usually control fixation, the deployment of visual attention is rarely restricted. The present studies investigated the influence of visual attention on the visual field asymmetries normally observed in single-letter identification and lexical decision tasks. Attention was controlled using a peripheral cue that provided advance knowledge of the location of the forthcoming stimulus. The time period between the onset of the cue and the onset of the stimulus (Stimulus Onset Asynchrony—SOA) was varied, such that the time available for attention to focus upon the location was controlled. At short SO As a right visual field advantage for identifying single letters and for making lexical decisions was apparent. However, at longer SOAs letters and words presented in the two visual fields were identified equally well. It is concluded that visual field advantages arise from an interaction of attentional and structural factors and that the attentional component in visual field asymmetries must be controlled in order to approximate more closely a true assessment of the relative functional capabilities of the right and left cerebral hemispheres.