Age-related effects in inter-trial inhibition of attention

ABSTRACT

Young and older adults indentified the shape of a color oddball in a visual search task, and both showed faster and more accurate responses when the distractor color was passively viewed in the preceding target-absent trial than when the target color was previewed. This inter-trial effect, known as the distractor previewing effect (DPE), reflects an attentional bias that prevents attention from focusing on recently inspected features that failed to produce a target. The results showed that the DPE pattern was preserved across the lifespan, and that the age-related increase in the magnitude of the DPE appeared rooted in age-related slowing, suggesting substantial sparing of this inhibitory effect in old age.     

Age-related differences in the distractor previewing effect with schematic faces of emotions

Young and older adults searched for a unique face in a set of three schematic faces and identified a secondary feature of the target. The faces could be negative, positive, or neutral. Young adults were slower and less accurate in searching for a negative face among neutral faces when they had previewed a display of negative faces than when they had previewed neutral faces, indicating an emotional distractor previewing effect (DPE), but this effect was eliminated with inverted faces. The DPE is an index of inter-trial inhibition to keep attention away from previewed, non-target information. Older adults also showed such an emotional DPE, but it was present with both upright and inverted faces. These results show that, in general, both young and old participants are sensitive to trial history, yet the different patterns of results suggest that these two groups remember and use different types of perceptual information when searching through emotional faces.     

The role of attention in the facilitation effect and another "inhibition of return"

The present study investigated how anticipation of a target's appearance affects human attention to gaze cues provided by a schematic face. Subjects in a 'catch' group received a high number of 'catch' trials, in which no target stimulus appeared. Subjects in the control group did not receive any catch trials. As in previous studies, both groups showed a facilitation effect to the cued location during shorter stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). In both groups, an analysis of eye movements confirmed that subjects' eyes remained on the fixation point, ruling out the possibility that the facilitation effect was due to shifting eye movements (saccades) as opposed to a shift in covert attention. But while the control group's response time (RT) decreased as SOA increased, the catch group's RT had a U-shaped pattern and the facilitation effect to the cued location was reversed at the longest SOA (1005 ms). These results suggest that subjects in the catch group disengaged their attention during long SOAs because they expected the trial to be a catch trial. This disengagement of attention during long SOAs results in a delay before attention could be re-focused to the previous location regardless of the cue validity ["IOR (inhibition of return)"-like-phenomenon]. Unlike the conventional IOR, we suggest that this "IOR"-like phenomenon caused by an unpredictive central gaze cue is likely to be mediated by an endogenous mechanism.     

Just passing through? Inhibition of return in saccadic sequences

Responses tend to be slower to previously fixated spatial locations, an effect known as “inhibition of return” (IOR). Saccades cannot be assumed to be independent, however, and saccade sequences programmed in parallel differ from independent eye movements. We measured the speed of both saccadic and manual responses to probes appearing in previously fixated locations when those locations were fixated as part of either parallel or independent saccade sequences. Saccadic IOR was observed in independent but not parallel saccade sequences, while manual IOR was present in both parallel and independent sequence types. Saccadic IOR was also short-lived, and dissipated with delays of more than ～1500?ms between the intermediate fixation and the probe onset. The results confirm that the characteristics of IOR depend critically on the response modality used for measuring it, with saccadic and manual responses giving rise to motor and attentional forms of IOR, respectively. Saccadic IOR is relatively short-lived and is not observed at intermediate locations of parallel saccade sequences, while attentional IOR is long-lasting and consistent for all sequence types.     

The interacting effect of load and space on visual selective attention

In the study of visual attention, two major determinants of our ability to ignore distracting information have been isolated, namely, (1) the spatial separation from the focus of attention and (2) perceptual load. This study manipulated both factors using a dual-task adaptation of the flanker paradigm (Eriksen & Hoffman, 1973). It showed that (1) although attention followed a gradient profile under low perceptual load it followed a Mexican-hat profile under high perceptual load, consistent with the idea that increasing load focuses spatial attention; and (2) increasing perceptual load did not improve overall selectivity: Though selectivity improved at near separations, it was impaired at far ones. Load and spatial separation exert interacting effects.     

The detection of temporally defined objects does not require focused attention

Perceptual grouping is crucial to distinguish objects from their background. Recent studies have shown that observers can detect an object that does not have any unique qualities other than unique temporal properties. A crucial question is whether focused attention is needed for this type of grouping. In two visual search experiments, we show that searching for an object defined by temporal grouping can occur in parallel. These findings suggest that focused attention is not needed for temporal grouping to occur. It is proposed that temporal grouping may occur because the neurons representing the changing object elements adopt firing frequencies that cause the visual system to bind these elements together without the need for focused attention.     

To see dynamic change: continuous focused attention facilitates change detection,but the effect persists briefly

What is the role of continuously focused attention on an object in change detection? To ensure focused attention on one object, we conducted a single object change detection task, manipulating an object’s location between pre-change and post-change displays (same or different location), and also manipulating a blank duration (the FOD task) and a pre-change object presentation duration (the FBD task). If attention is continuously focused at the spatial location of the pre-change object, a location shift of the post-change object should interrupt change detection due to a cognitive cost of attentional shift. Results suggest attention is focused continuously for a brief blank duration, and attention can facilitate the detection of change occurring at the location of attentional focus. Additionally, although attention is focused continuously for a long time if a target is visible, the effect of attention declines with time. The results clarify the new temporal characteristics of focused attention.     

基于物体的注意对Simon效应的调节

本研究采用双长方形框范式的变式将注意分离为基于空间和基于物体的注意后,探讨了注意对Simon效应的调节是否由基于物体的注意引起。结果发现,在长方形框水平排列时在基于物体的注意条件下Simon效应增大,而在长方形框垂直排列时在基于物体的注意条件下Simon效应没有显著变化。这表明,在长方形框水平排列时基于物体的注意可以对Simon 效应进行调节。实验结果部分支持了动态版的参照编码假设和物体文件整合假设。     

The modulatory impact of reward and attention on global feature selection in human visual cortex

Reward powerfully influences human behaviour and perception, with reward effects being observed already on the level of basic sensory processing. Although reward-related modulations generally resemble those related to attentional selection, it is debated whether these effects indeed reflect the same selection operations. Here we focus on neuromagnetic indices of global colour-based attention in visual cortex, and ask whether reward elicits the same or separable underlying modulation effects. Observers performed a colour/orientation selection task where colour served to define the target as well as reward prospect. On each trial a target containing the target colour and one other colour was presented in the left visual field (VF) together with a bicoloured distractor in the right VF. Reward was delivered on correctly performed trials when the reward colour appeared in the target but not when it appeared in the distractor. The effect of global colour selection was assessed by comparing the brain response to the distractor depending on whether it contained the target colour, the reward colour, both, or neither. We observed that both the reward and target colour led to similar increases of the neuromagnetic response between ~200–260 ms originating from the same ventral extrastriate visual cortex areas, albeit slightly temporally lagged. Importantly, the response to the target and reward colour alone always added up to match the response size of their combined presentation. These results suggest that while reward and attention recruit the same global feature selection effects in extrastriate visual cortex, they are likely controlled by independent top-down influences.     

Maternal anxiety and toddler depressive/anxiety behaviors: The direct and moderating role of children's focused attention

Attention mechanisms have a pertinent role in shaping developmental pathways to anxiety and depressive disorders. The current study examined the direct and interactive associations between maternal anxiety symptoms, children's focused attention, and children’s anxiety and depression behaviors in early toddlerhood. Participants were 150 mother-child dyads (50 % female) that were assessed at two time points. At 12 months of child age, mothers reported about their anxiety symptoms and children's focused attention. Children's focused attention was also observed and rated from an individual play task. At 18 months of age, mothers reported about children's anxiety and depression behaviors. Focused attention predicted child anxiety and depressive behaviors, with different patterns of associations between observed and reported measures of attention. There was also a significant interaction between maternal anxiety symptoms and observed children's focused attention. A positive association between maternal anxiety symptoms and child anxiety and depression symptoms was evident only for children with above-average levels of observed focused attention during play. Results suggest that different aspects of focused attention play a role in maternal reported anxiety and depression behaviors in early development and may modulate the intergenerational transmission of anxiety.     

双通道分配性注意对视听觉返回抑制的影响

本研究基于线索-靶子范式, 操纵目标刺激类型(视觉、听觉、视听觉)与线索有效性(有效线索、中性条件、无效线索)两个自变量, 通过3个实验来考察双通道分配性注意对视听觉返回抑制(inhibition of return, IOR)的影响。实验1 (听觉刺激呈现在左/右侧)结果发现, 在双通道分配性注意条件下, 视觉目标产生显著IOR效应, 而视听觉目标没有产生IOR效应; 实验2 (听觉刺激呈现在左/右侧)与实验3 (听觉刺激呈现在中央)结果发现, 在视觉通道选择性注意条件下, 视觉与视听觉目标均产生显著IOR效应但二者无显著差异。结果表明：双通道分配性注意减弱视听觉IOR效应。     

The role of attention level in the attentional boost effect

ABSTRACT

Previous studies reported a memory facilitation effect in which increased attention to one task facilitates the memory performance on another. Here we examined the characteristics of this “attentional boost effect” (ABE), and demonstrated how attention level during memory encoding influences the ABE strength by changing the occurring frequency of the attention-engaging target signal relative to the non-attention-engaging distractor signal (Experiment 1), and the physical salience of colour of the target signal (Experiment 2). The results indicated stronger ABE in conditions with a low ratio of target signal trials and with a salient target signal. Experiment 3 examined the role of spatial attention, which sought to measure how the distance between the target signal and the to-be-encoded item would influence the ABE strength. The results showed that the ABE strength was not influenced by the distance between the two. Overall, these findings suggest ABE may be mainly based on temporal attention.     

Voluntary and involuntary attention have different consequences: The effect of perceptual difficulty

We propose that voluntary and involuntary attention affect different mechanisms and have different consequences for performance measured in reaction time. Voluntary attention enhances the perceptual representation whereas involuntary attention affects the tendency to respond to stimuli in one location or another. In a spatial-cueing paradigm, we manipulated perceptual difficulty and compared voluntary and involuntary attention. For the voluntary-attention condition, the spatial cue was predictive of the target location, whereas in the involuntary-attention condition it was not. Increasing perceptual difficulty increased the attention effect with voluntary attention, but decreased it with involuntary attention. Thus voluntary and involuntary attention have different consequences when perceptual difficulty is manipulated and hence are probably caused by different mechanisms.     

Cognitive development in 7- to 24-month-old extremely/very-to-moderately/late preterm and full-term born infants: The mediating role of focused attention

The present study analyzed the links between prematurity, attention, and global cognitive performance in infancy and early childhood. At 7 months, focused attention (FA) was examined with an object examination task in 93 preterm infants (39 of them born extremely/very preterm, 54 born moderately/late preterm, and 38 infants born full-term). Global cognition was assessed at 7 and 24 months with the Bayley-II cognitive scale. Groups did not differ with respect to global cognitive performance but FA of infants born extremely/very preterm was significantly lower than in infants born moderately/late preterm. FA correlated significantly with both prematurity and cognitive performance at 7 months of age but not with global cognition in childhood. Findings point to a subtle adverse effect of prematurity on early attention and reveal evidence for the mediating role of FA on the effect of prematurity on cognition.     

Two spatially separated attention systems in the visual field: evidence from inhibition of return

It has been demonstrated that the human visual field shows some functional inhomogeneities, in particular when the central and perifoveal regions are compared to the more peripheral regions. The present study examined this inhomogeneity by examining the effect of stimulus eccentricity on inhibition of return (IOR), a phenomenon that biases our attention towards novel locations against returning it back to previously attended locations. Eighteen subjects were examined in a visual detection task, in which a target appeared randomly following a nonpredictive spatial cue in the visual field. The eccentricities of the cues and targets were systematically manipulated from 5° to 30° with 5° increments. Results showed that response times to targets that appeared at cued locations were significantly slower than those at uncued locations for all stimulus eccentricities, demonstrating the IOR effects. However, response times at cued locations increased significantly when stimulus eccentricity shifted from 15° to 20°, leading to a much stronger IOR effect at more peripheral regions compared to central and perifoveal regions, indicating a functional dissociation between these two regions of the visual field. Possible neural mechanisms underlying this dissociation are discussed, and two attention systems modulating the two functional regions of the visual field are put forward to best account the present finding implicating in particular midbrain mechanism.     

Effects of mental fatigue on the capacity limits of visual attention

The literature indicates that mental fatigue, due to Time-on-Task (ToT), compromises the ability to ignore distractors. The present study elaborates on this effect by testing whether perceptual load of the target stimuli moderates the ability to ignore distractors under fatigue. Participants (N = 27) performed a visual attention task (an Eriksen flanker task) for 2.5 hours without rest. Target letters were presented at three different perceptual loads and with a peripheral distractor letter. Three target–distractor conditions were tested: congruent, incongruent, and neutral. Results showed that, overall, error rates and reaction times increased with ToT. The detrimental effect of fatigue on performance was most pronounced in the high perceptual load condition. Importantly, however, we also found that fatigue-related ignorance of distractors was compromised in the low perceptual load condition, but not in the medium or high perceptual load condition. This finding is in accordance with the perceptual load theory and refines the knowledge about the declining cognitive performance under fatigue.     

Directing gaze: The effect of disclaimer labels on women's visual attention to fashion magazine advertisements

In an effort to combat the known negative effects of exposure to unrealistic thin ideal images, there is increasing worldwide pressure on fashion, media and advertising industries to disclose when images have been digitally altered. The current study used eye tracking technology to investigate experimentally how digital alteration disclaimer labels impact women's visual attention to fashion magazine advertisements. Participants were 60 female undergraduate students who viewed four thin ideal advertisements with either no disclaimer, a generic disclaimer, or a specific more detailed disclaimer. It was established that women did attend to the disclaimers. The nature of the disclaimer had no effect on time spent looking at particular body parts, but did affect the direction of gaze following reading of the disclaimer. This latter effect was found to be greater for women high on trait appearance comparison. Further research is paramount in guiding effective policy around the use of disclaimer labels.     

Unconscious attention modulates the silencing effect of top-down predictions

The brain is considered to be proactive in that it continuously generates predictions about external environment stimuli. Recent Bayesian models of perception have demonstrated that prediction and attention operate synergistically to optimize stimulus processing. However, the relation between prediction and unconscious attention remains unclear given the relative neglect of unconscious attention in scholarly literatures. To investigate this issue, twenty participants (12 women) performed an orientation identification task in which a circular grating appeared either in the left or in the right visual field in a single 30–40 min session, during which 64-channel EEG data were acquired. Behavioral results showed an unconscious-attended effect and a facilitated effect. Importantly, prediction-related P1 and N1 silencing effects were observed in the unconscious-attended condition, probably reflecting that unconscious attention improves the precision of top-down predictions at an early stage of processing, thereby increasing the synaptic gain of predictor neurons. Moreover, unlike the early ERP components, P3 revealed a reversed pattern of results, which displayed a silencing effect of prediction only in the unattended condition, suggesting that the influence of unconscious attention on the silencing effect may change over time.     

工作记忆负荷对无意注意的影响

通过探讨工作记忆负荷对无意注意的影响,考察工作记忆的认知控制功能对选择性注意的作用机制。为了避免工作记忆和选择注意的目标或者干扰子之间的知觉注意资源的竞争,采用言语工作记忆任务和视觉空间位置辨别任务,同时视觉干扰刺激采用被试无法识别的韩语。结果发现,在高负荷条件下,干扰效应显著;而在低和中负荷条件下,没有观察到干扰效应。说明在高负荷条件下,被试没有额外的资源来抑制干扰加工,从而出现了显著的干扰效应。由此,本研究支持负荷理论的观点：工作记忆在选择性注意中执行认知控制功能。     

The role of crossmodal competition and dimensional overlap in crossmodal attention switching

Crossmodal selective attention was investigated in a cued task switching paradigm using bimodal visual and auditory stimulation. A cue indicated the imperative modality. Three levels of spatial S–R associations were established following perceptual (location), structural (numerical), and conceptual (verbal) set-level compatibility. In Experiment 1, participants switched attention between the auditory and visual modality either with a spatial-location or spatial-numerical stimulus set. In the spatial-location set, participants performed a localization judgment on left vs. right presented stimuli, whereas the spatial-numerical set required a magnitude judgment about a visually or auditorily presented number word. Single-modality blocks with unimodal stimuli were included as a control condition. In Experiment 2, the spatial-numerical stimulus set was replaced by a spatial-verbal stimulus set using direction words (e.g., “left”). RT data showed modality switch costs, which were asymmetric across modalities in the spatial-numerical and spatial-verbal stimulus set (i.e., larger for auditory than for visual stimuli), and congruency effects, which were asymmetric primarily in the spatial-location stimulus set (i.e., larger for auditory than for visual stimuli). This pattern of effects suggests task-dependent visual dominance.