Mindfulness training affects attention--or is it attentional effort?

Improvements in attentional performance are at the core of proposed mechanisms for stress reduction in mindfulness meditation practices. However, this claim can be questioned because no previous studies have actively manipulated test effort in control groups and controlled for effects of stress reduction per se. In a blinded design, 48 young, healthy meditation novices were randomly assigned to a mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), nonmindfulness stress reduction (NMSR), or inactive control group. At posttest, inactive controls were randomly split into nonincentive and incentive controls, the latter receiving a financial reward to improve attentional performance. Pre- and postintervention, 5 validated attention paradigms were employed along with self-report scales on mindfulness and perceived stress and saliva cortisol samples to measure physiological stress. Attentional effects of MBSR, NMSR, and the financial incentive were comparable or significantly larger in the incentive group on all reaction-time-based measures. However, selective attention in the MBSR group improved significantly more than in any other group. Similarly, only the MBSR intervention improved the threshold for conscious perception and visual working memory capacity. Furthermore, stress-reducing effects of MBSR were supported because those in the MBSR group showed significantly less perceived and physiological stress while increasing their mindfulness levels significantly. We argue that MBSR may contribute uniquely to attentional improvements but that further research focusing on non-reaction-time-based measures and outcomes less confounded by test effort is needed. Critically, our data demonstrate that previously observed improvements of attention after MBSR may be seriously confounded by test effort and nonmindfulness stress reduction.     

奖赏预期对面孔情绪加工的影响：一项事件相关电位研究

采用事件相关电位(ERPs)技术考察了奖赏预期对人类面孔情绪识别的影响。实验采用线索-目标范式, 分别记录了被试在奖赏预期条件下以及无奖赏预期条件下对正性、中性和负性面孔进行情绪辨别任务的ERP数据。行为结果显示, 被试在奖赏预期条件下的反应时快于无奖赏预期条件下的反应时, 对情绪面孔的反应时快于对中性面孔的反应时。ERPs数据显示, 奖赏线索比无奖赏线索诱发了更正的P1、P2和P300成分。目标刺激诱发的P1、N170波幅以及N300均受到奖赏预期的调节, 在奖赏预期条件下目标诱发了更正的ERPs。P1、N170、VPP等成分没有受到面孔情绪的影响, 而额中央位置的N300波幅显示情绪(正性与负性)面孔与中性面孔加工的差异。重要的是, N300波幅出现奖赏预期与情绪的交互作用, 正、负情绪加工效应以及负性偏向效应受奖赏预期的差异性影响。正性情绪加工效应不受奖赏预期的影响, 而负性情绪加工效应和负性偏向效应在奖赏预期条件下显著大于无奖赏预期条件下。这些结果说明, 奖赏预期能够调节对面孔情绪的加工, 且不同加工进程中奖赏对情绪加工的调节作用不同。动机性信息调节注意资源的分配, 促进了个体在加工面孔情绪时的负性偏向。     

Does imminent threat capture and hold attention?

According to models of attention and emotion, threat captures and holds attention. In behavioral tasks, robust evidence has been found for attentional holding but not for attentional capture by threat. An important explanation for the absence of attentional capture effects is that the visual stimuli used posed no genuine threat. The present study investigated whether visual cues that signal an aversive white noise can elicit attentional capture and holding effects. Cues presented in an attentional task were simultaneously provided with a threat value through an aversive conditioning procedure. Response latencies showed that threatening cues captured and held attention. These results support recent views on attention to threat, proposing that imminent threat captures attention in everyone.     

Assessing the role of accuracy-based feedback in value-driven attentional capture

Despite being physically nonsalient and task-irrelevant, objects rendered in a color that once signaled monetary reward reflexively capture attention during visual search, a phenomenon known as value-driven attentional capture (VDAC). However, it remains a subject of empirical controversy whether learned reward associations are necessary to driving subsequent attentional capture: VDAC-like effects have been observed when accuracy-based feedback alone was used during the VDAC training phase, resulting in attentional capture by objects that were never associated with monetary reward; perplexingly, the presence of these VDAC-like effects in the literature conflicts with those of a number of control studies in which no such capture has been observed, leaving the issue currently unresolved. In this Registered Report, we present new empirical evidence of attentional capture by unrewarded former targets following limited accuracy-based training. We proposed to replicate these results in an independent sample and to test an empirically derived hypothesis concerning a methodological difference between the studies that have shown VDAC-like effects with accuracy-based feedback and those that have not. In short, we found no evidence that this methodological difference accounts for the inconsistencies in the literature, but our replication efforts were overwhelmingly successful, thus reinvigorating debate about the role that selection history may play in value-driven attentional capture.     

金钱刺激和决策者角色对个体道德决策的影响——基于过程分离范式

以大学生为被试,采用3（金钱刺激：无金钱刺激、金钱奖励、金钱惩罚）×2（决策者角色：决策者、旁观者）的被试间实验设计,利用过程分离范式分别计算被试道德决策中的功利主义倾向和道义论倾向,从而探讨金钱刺激和决策者角色对个体道德决策的影响。结果发现：（1）无论是决策者还是旁观者,金钱刺激都不会影响其道义论倾向;（2）决策者的道义论倾向大于旁观者;（3）只在有金钱奖励时决策者的功利主义倾向才大于旁观者。     

奖赏预期调节局部注意干扰效应

局部注意干扰效应(Localized attentional interference, LAI)是指在视觉搜索任务中同时搜索在空间上分离的两个目标时, 或者目标周围存在一个无关奇异项时, 这两个关键刺激相距较近时产生的干扰现象。本实验采用视觉搜索范式, 探讨了奖赏预期对局部注意干扰效应的影响。实验1采用双目标搜索任务, 要求被试判断搜索画面中两个奇异项刺激的形状是否相同。结果显示奖赏条件和无奖赏条件都表现出显著的距离主效应, 随着目标间距离增大, 被试的正确率提高, 反应时下降。同时, 在远距离时, 奖赏条件下的正确率高于无奖赏条件, 而在近距离时, 奖赏条件下的正确率反而低于无奖赏条件, 即, 奖赏条件下局部注意干扰效应反而增大。高动机状态增强了两个目标的表征, 反而不利于解决局部注意干扰效应。实验2采用单目标搜索任务, 要求被试判断特定目标的方位并忽略另一无关奇异项刺激。与实验1不同的是, 实验2仅在无奖赏条件下观察到显著的距离主效应, 即被试行为表现在远距离时更好; 而在奖赏条件下, 被试在近距离和远距离的表现一样好, 即没有局部注意干扰效应。这说明在奖赏预期条件, 个体可以有效抑制分心物刺激的干扰, 将注意集中于目标刺激的加工, 从而对局部注意干扰效应产生调节。整个研究表明, 奖赏整体上能够提高对任务相关刺激的表征, 并抑制任务无关刺激, 虽然这并不总是能够提高任务表现。     

Monetary reward increases attentional effort in the flanker task

An important question is whether monetary reward can increase attentional effort in order to improve performance. Up to now, evidence for a positive answer is weak. Therefore, in the present study, the flanker task was used to examine this question further. Participants had to respond sooner than a certain deadline in a flanker task. One group of participants received a performance-contingent monetary reward, whereas the other group earned a fixed amount of money. As a result, monetary reward significantly improved performance in comparison with the control group. The analysis of speed-accuracy trade-off functions revealed that monetary reward increased attentional effort, leading to an enhanced quality of stimulus coding. Little evidence was found that reward also improved selective spatial attention.     

金钱激励在社会排斥影响不确定性决策中的调节作用

研究从金钱补偿的视角考察社会排斥对不确定性决策的影响以及金钱激励的调节作用。实验发现,有金钱激励时,被排斥者在爱荷华赌博任务(Iowa gambling task,IGT)中的行为分数(组块2和3的选牌净分数和总的盈利分数)显著高于社会接纳者,表现为风险规避; 在无金钱激励时,被排斥者在IGT任务中的行为分数(组块4和5的选牌净分数和总的盈利分数)显著低于被接纳者,表现为风险寻求。实验结果表明社会排斥对不确定性决策的影响受到金钱激励的调制。     

Differential effects of social and non‐social reward on response inhibition in children and adolescents

An important issue in the field of clinical and developmental psychopathology is whether cognitive control processes, such as response inhibition, can be specifically enhanced by motivation. To determine whether non‐social (i.e. monetary) and social (i.e. positive facial expressions) rewards are able to differentially improve response inhibition accuracy in typically developing children and adolescents, an ‘incentive’ go/no‐go task was applied with reward contingencies for successful inhibition. In addition, the impact of children's personality traits (such as reward seeking and empathy) on monetary and social reward responsiveness was assessed in 65 boys, ages 8 to 12 years. All subjects were tested twice: At baseline, inhibitory control was assessed without reward, and then subjects were pseudorandomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions, including (1) social reward only, (2) monetary reward only, (3) mixed social and monetary reward, or (4) a retest condition without reward. Both social and non‐social reward significantly improved task performance, although larger effects were observed for monetary reward. The higher the children scored on reward seeking scales, the larger was their improvement in response inhibition, but only if monetary reward was used. In addition, there was a tendency for an association between empathic skills and benefits from social reward. These data suggest that social incentives do not have an equally strong reinforcing value as compared to financial incentives. However, different personality traits seem to determine to what extent a child profits from different types of reward. Clinical implications regarding probable hyposensitivity to social reward in subjects with autism and dysregulated reward‐seeking behaviour in children with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are discussed.     

Sex differences in the neural underpinnings of social and monetary incentive processing during adolescence

The brain’s reward system undergoes major changes during adolescence, and an increased reactivity to social and nonsocial incentives has been described as a typical feature during this transitional period. Little is known whether there are sex differences in the brain’s responsiveness to social or monetary incentives during adolescence. The aim of this event-related potential (ERP) study was to compare the neurophysiological underpinnings of monetary and social incentive processing in adolescent boys versus girls. During ERP recording, 38 adolescents (21 females, 17 males; 13–18 years) completed an incentive delay task comprising (a) a reward versus punishment condition and (b) social versus monetary incentives. The stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) was recorded during anticipation of reward and punishment, and the feedback P3 (fP3) along with the feedback-related negativity (FRN) after reward/punishment delivery. During anticipation of social punishment, adolescent boys compared with girls exhibited a reduced SPN. After delivery, male adolescents exhibited higher fP3 amplitudes to monetary compared with social incentives, whereas fP3 amplitudes in girls were comparable across incentive types. Moreover, whereas in boys fP3 responses were higher in rewards than in punishment trials, no such difference was evident in girls. The results indicate that adolescent boys show a reduced neural responsivity in the prospect of social punishment. Moreover, the findings imply that, once the incentive is obtained, adolescent boys attribute a relatively enhanced motivational significance to monetary incentives and show a relative hyposensitivity to punishment. The findings might contribute to our understanding of sex-specific vulnerabilities to problem behaviors related to incentive processing during adolescence.     

Delay of gratification in psychopathic and nonpsychopathic offenders.

Delay of gratification is a prototypical measure of self-control that merits systematic investigation in psychopaths. White male prisoners were provided with repeated opportunities to select an immediate response with uncertain reward or a delayed response with a higher rate of reward under one of three incentive conditions. Psychopaths' performance depended on their level of trait anxiety and incentive condition: Whereas low-anxious psychopaths were relatively unwilling to delay when omission of expected rewards also incurred monetary punishments, they displayed relatively superior performance when the task involved rewards only. Findings complement those for passive avoidance learning in psychopaths and suggest that inhibitory self-control in low-anxious psychopaths is somewhat impaired under conditions involving a combination of monetary rewards and punishments.     

Unconscious reward facilitates motion perceptual learning

Reward signal plays an important role in guiding human learning behaviour. Recent studies have provided evidence that reward signal modulates perceptual learning of basic visual features. Typically, the reward effects on perceptual learning were accompanied with consciously presented reward during the learning process. However, whether an unconsciously presented reward signal that minimizes the contribution of attentional and motivational factors can facilitate perceptual learning remains less well understood. We trained human subjects on a visual motion detection task and subliminally delivered a monetary reward for correct response during the training. The results showed significantly larger learning effect for high reward-associated motion direction than low reward-associated motion direction. Importantly, subjects could neither discriminate the relative values of the subliminal monetary reward nor correctly report the reward-direction contingencies. Our findings suggest that reward signal plays an important modulatory role in perceptual learning even if the magnitude of the reward was not consciously perceived.     

预期惩罚调节认知控制权衡：来自行为和fNIRS的证据

为了探讨预期惩罚是如何影响认知控制权衡,本研究采用fNIRS技术考察被试在完成有惩罚和无惩罚AX-CPT任务时的行为表现和大脑激活模式。行为结果发现：与无惩罚的基线条件相比,惩罚条件下个体偏向主动性控制。脑成像结果发现：与无惩罚的基线条件相比,惩罚条件下大脑前额叶皮层在线索阶段处于负激活状态。这说明,惩罚条件下在线索阶段个体需要更多的注意资源,因此,脑成像的结果也表明惩罚使被试更偏向主动性控制。     

奖赏历史对自上而下注意控制的调节：促进还是干扰？

奖赏能够影响注意控制,但是关于奖赏历史对注意控制的影响还处于争论之中。本研究以大学生为被试,采用点探测范式,操作了奖赏历史和奖赏额度,考察了奖赏历史对自上而下注意控制的调节作用。实验一结果发现,有奖赏-无奖赏条件下前后阶段反应时无显著差异,无奖赏-有奖赏条件下有奖赏阶段的反应时显著短于无奖赏阶段。实验二操作了奖赏额度,结果与实验一一致。整个研究表明,奖赏历史促进自上而下注意控制,先前奖赏对随后自上而下注意控制产生持续促进效应。     

Pavlovian reward learning underlies value driven attentional capture

Recent evidence shows that distractors that signal high compared to low reward availability elicit stronger attentional capture, even when this is detrimental for task-performance. This suggests that simply correlating stimuli with reward administration, rather than their instrumental relationship with obtaining reward, produces value-driven attentional capture. However, in previous studies, reward delivery was never response independent, as only correct responses were rewarded, nor was it completely task-irrelevant, as the distractor signaled the magnitude of reward that could be earned on that trial. In two experiments, we ensured that associative reward learning was completely response independent by letting participants perform a task at fixation, while high and low rewards were automatically administered following the presentation of task-irrelevant colored stimuli in the periphery (Experiment 1) or at fixation (Experiment 2). In a following non-reward test phase, using the additional singleton paradigm, the previously reward signaling stimuli were presented as distractors to assess truly task-irrelevant value driven attentional capture. The results showed that high compared to low reward-value associated distractors impaired performance, and thus captured attention more strongly. This suggests that genuine Pavlovian conditioning of stimulus-reward contingencies is sufficient to obtain value-driven attentional capture. Furthermore, value-driven attentional capture can occur following associative reward learning of temporally and spatially task-irrelevant distractors that signal the magnitude of available reward (Experiment 1), and is independent of training spatial shifts of attention towards the reward signaling stimuli (Experiment 2). This confirms and strengthens the idea that Pavlovian reward learning underlies value driven attentional capture.     

Effect of attention control on sustained attention during induced anxiety

Anxiety has wide-reaching and complex effects on cognitive performance. Although it can intrude on cognition and interfere with performance, it can also facilitate information processing and behavioural responses. In a previous study, we showed that anxiety induced by threat of shock facilitates performance on the Sustained Attention to Response Task, a vigilance test, which probes response inhibition to infrequent nogo stimuli. The present study sought to identify factors that may have contributed to such improved performance, including on- and off-task thinking (assessed with thought probes) and individual differences in attention control, as measured with the Attention Control Scale. Replicating our prior finding, we showed that shock threat significantly reduced errors of commission on the nogo trials. However, we extended this finding in demonstrating that this effect was driven by subjects with low attention control. We therefore confirm that anxiety increases inhibitory control of prepotent responses—a mechanism which is adaptive under threat—and show that this effect is greater in those who rely more upon such prepotent responding, i.e., those with low attentional control.     

Utilization of reward-prospect enhances preparatory attention and reduces stimulus conflict

The prospect of gaining money is an incentive widely at play in the real world. Such monetary motivation might have particularly strong influence when the cognitive system is challenged, such as when needing to process conflicting stimulus inputs. Here, we employed manipulations of reward-prospect and attentional-preparation levels in a cued-Stroop stimulus conflict task, along with the high temporal resolution of electrical brain recordings, to provide insight into the mechanisms by which reward-prospect and attention interact and modulate cognitive task performance. In this task, the cue indicated whether or not the participant needed to prepare for an upcoming Stroop stimulus and, if so, whether there was the potential for monetary reward (dependent on performance on that trial). Both cued attention and cued reward-prospect enhanced preparatory neural activity, as reflected by increases in the hallmark attention-related negative-polarity ERP slow wave (contingent negative variation [CNV]) and reductions in oscillatory Alpha activity, which was followed by enhanced processing of the subsequent Stroop stimulus. In addition, similar modulations of preparatory neural activity (larger CNVs and reduced Alpha) predicted shorter versus longer response times (RTs) to the subsequent target stimulus, consistent with such modulations reflecting trial-to-trial variations in attention. Particularly striking were the individual differences in the utilization of reward-prospect information. In particular, the size of the reward effects on the preparatory neural activity correlated across participants with the degree to which reward-prospect both facilitated overall task performance (shorter RTs) and reduced conflict-related behavioral interference. Thus, the prospect of reward appears to recruit attentional preparation circuits to enhance processing of task-relevant target information.     

奖励和惩罚在注意控制过程中的优化和分离：眼动研究

通过两个眼动实验考察金钱奖励和惩罚引起的动机对个体在不同空间线索条件下注意控制加工的影响。实验1采用朝向/反向眼跳范式, 被试通过内源性线索提供心理准备的情况下做出简单的朝向眼跳以及需要抑制优势反应的反向眼跳。结果发现, 相比无奖惩条件, 奖励条件下朝向眼跳任务的正确率更高, 惩罚条件下反向眼跳任务的正确率更高; 两种眼跳任务中有奖惩条件下的眼跳峰速度均比无奖惩条件高。实验2采用Go/No-go任务, 进一步探讨了由副中央凹加工外源性边缘线索从而不能提供充分心理准备的情况下奖励和惩罚对注意控制的影响。结果发现, 奖励条件下Go反应的眼跳潜伏期更短, 惩罚条件下No-go反应正确率更高, 眼跳峰速度在两种条件下均比无奖惩条件高。以上结果表明, 奖励和惩罚均能够促进个体的注意控制, 但二者的加工过程是分离的, 奖励能够改善趋近行为, 惩罚则能够显著促进抑制控制行为, 且奖励和惩罚在注意控制加工过程中具有不同的作用模式, 奖励能够更早唤醒注意控制系统从而更快地促进行为的发生与执行, 惩罚则能够通过调节注意资源促进以目标为导向的行为中对优势反应的抑制。     

奖赏预期对选择性注意的影响——基于客体和空间的注意的区别

为了探究奖赏预期对选择性注意的影响,结合金钱激励延迟任务和双矩形范式,通过两个实验分别考察了奖赏预期的有无以及高低对选择性注意的影响。实验结果表明,在有奖赏预期的情况下,选择性注意更快,奖赏预期的有无对基于空间的注意影响区别不大,但奖赏预期几乎消除了基于客体的注意效应。在低奖赏预期条件下,基于客体和空间的注意均存在;而高奖赏预期条件下,基于空间的注意仍然存在,基于客体的注意几乎被消除了。结果表明奖赏预期可以影响选择性注意,并对基于空间和客体的注意产生不同影响。     

Intrinsic motivation and attentional capture from gamelike features in a visual search task

In psychology research studies, the goals of the experimenter and the goals of the participants often do not align. Researchers are interested in having participants who take the experimental task seriously, whereas participants are interested in earning their incentive (e.g., money or course credit) as quickly as possible. Creating experimental methods that are pleasant for participants and that reward them for effortful and accurate data generation, while not compromising the scientific integrity of the experiment, would benefit both experimenters and participants alike. Here, we explored a gamelike system of points and sound effects that rewarded participants for fast and accurate responses. We measured participant engagement at both cognitive and perceptual levels and found that the point system (which invoked subtle, anonymous social competition between participants) led to positive intrinsic motivation, while the sound effects (which were pleasant and arousing) led to attentional capture for rewarded colors. In a visual search task, points were awarded after each trial for fast and accurate responses, accompanied by short, pleasant sound effects. We adapted a paradigm from Anderson, Laurent, and Yantis (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108(25):10367-10371, 2011b), in which participants completed a training phase during which red and green targets were probabilistically associated with reward (a point bonus multiplier). During a test phase, no points or sounds were delivered, color was irrelevant to the task, and previously rewarded targets were sometimes presented as distractors. Significantly longer response times on trials in which previously rewarded colors were present demonstrated attentional capture, and positive responses to a five-question intrinsic-motivation scale demonstrated participant engagement.