Action as a Window to Perception: Measuring Attention with Mouse Movements

Eye‐gaze tracking has been shown to deliver valuable information about how people view advertisements and what they pay attention to. However, practical difficulties in its application limit its usability by marketing researchers. Here, we explore the use of mouse tracking to evaluate viewing behavior by determining whether the hand can be trained to follow visual spatial attention and whether visual processing can be estimated by tracking pointing movements made with a computer mouse. In brief, the results of the research are very promising, showing high correlations between the scan paths for the eye and the mouse, as well as high correlations between the percentage of time spent in designated regions of interest for the mouse and the eye. An additional comparison of the data with that of a group who did not use a mouse while viewing the experimental stimuli showed that viewing patterns were not disrupted by mouse use. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of feedback delay and feedback type on perceptual category learning: the limits of multiple systems

Evidence that learning rule-based (RB) and information-integration (II) category structures can be dissociated across different experimental variables has been used to support the view that such learning is supported by multiple learning systems. Across 4 experiments, we examined the effects of 2 variables, the delay between response and feedback and the informativeness of feedback, which had previously been shown to dissociate learning of the 2 types of category structure. Our aim was twofold: first, to determine whether these dissociations meet the more stringent inferential criteria of state-trace analysis and, second, to determine the conditions under which they can be observed. Experiment 1 confirmed that a mask-filled feedback delay dissociated the learning of RB and II category structures with minimally informative (yes/no) feedback and also met the state-trace criteria for the involvement of multiple latent variables. Experiment 2 showed that this effect is eliminated when a less similar, fixed pattern mask is presented in the interval between response and feedback. Experiment 3 showed that the selective effect of feedback delay on II learning is reduced with fully informative feedback (in which the correct category is specified after an incorrect response) and that feedback type did not dissociate RB and II learning. Experiment 4 extended the results of Experiment 2, showing that the differential effect of feedback delay is eliminated when a fixed pattern mask is used. These results pose important challenges to models of category learning, and we discuss their implications for multiple learning system models and their alternatives.     

Forced treadmill exercise prevents oxidative stress and memory deficits following chronic cerebral hypoperfusion in the rat

Physical activity impacts functional recovery following stroke in humans, however its effects in experimental animals submitted to chronic cerebral hypoperfusion have not been investigated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the therapeutic potential of exercise, as assessed by cognitive activity in the Morris water maze and the brain oxidative status, through measurement of macromolecules damage, TBARS levels and total cellular thiols, as well as antioxidant enzymes in hippocampus, striatum and cerebral cortex. Adult male Wistar rats were submitted to the modified permanent bilateral occlusion of the common carotid arteries (2VO) method, with right common carotid artery being first occluded, and tested 3 months after the ischemic event. The effects of three different exercise protocols were examined: pre-ischemia, post-ischemia and pre+post-ischemia. Physical exercise consisted of sessions of 20-min, 3 times per week during 12 weeks (moderate intensity). Rats were submitted to cognitive assessment, in both reference and working spatial memory and after the last testing session were sacrificed to have oxidative stress parameters determined. Hypoperfusion caused a significant cognitive deficit in both spatial water maze tasks and this effect was reversed in rats receiving exercise protocol post and pre+post the ischemic event. Moreover, forced regular treadmill exercise regulated oxidative damage and antioxidant enzyme activity in the hippocampus. These results suggest that physical exercise protects against cognitive and biochemical impairments caused by chronic cerebral hypoperfusion.     

Assessment of tripartite efficacy beliefs within school-based physical education: Instrument development and reliability and validity evidence

Objectives

In educational contexts, Lent and Lopez (2002) proposed that students develop a tripartite network of efficacy beliefs, comprising their confidence in their own capabilities (i.e., self-efficacy), their confidence in their teacher’s ability (i.e., other-efficacy), and their estimation of their teacher’s confidence in their ability (i.e., relation-inferred self-efficacy). In spite of the potential for school-based physical education (PE) to stimulate leisure-time activity patterns among adolescents, it is noteworthy that this framework has yet to be explored in school PE contexts.

Design and methods

In Phase 1, we recruited 62 Australian high school students (aged 11-13) in order to develop instruments designed to assess self-efficacy, other-efficacy, and relation-inferred self-efficacy within PE settings. In Phases 2 and 3, we sought to provide evidence for measurement reliability, validity, and invariance with cross-sectional and prospective data derived from Australian (N = 602, M_age = 13.54, SD = .76) as well as Singaporean (N = 606; M_age = 14.10, SD = 1.01) students.

Results

Results revealed (a) support for the factorial validity of these measures in both locations, (b) evidence of gender-related and cross-national measurement invariance, (c) positive inter-relationships between students’ tripartite efficacy perceptions that were consistent with theory, and (d) positive correlations with key in-class (e.g., effort, enjoyment) and leisure-time (e.g., physical activity levels) outcomes.

Conclusions

Taken together, the results provide preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of measures derived from these tripartite efficacy instruments, and support their use in future research designed to examine PE engagement.     

Inhibited prime-trial distractor responses solely produce the visual spatial negative priming effect

Responding to a target??s current (probe trial) location is slower when it appears at a former distractor-occupied position (i.e., ignored-repetition [IR] trial), relative to when it arises at a new location (i.e., control trial). This RT(IR) > RT(Control) inequality defines the spatial negative priming (SNP) effect in latency terms. It is uncertain whether the elevated RT(IR) is due to the inhibition of the distractor-occupied location or to the inhibition of this location??s assigned manual response (SNP locus issue). The main aim here was to examine the SNP locus issue. Notably, our SNP design used centrally presented visual events and included having two locations share a common response (many:1 location-to-response mapping) and the use of informative (70?% validity) or uninformative probe-trial response cues. The many:1 mapping trials allowed for the detection of location and response inhibition presence. Results showed that the latter, but not the former, causes inhibitory aftereffects (e.g., SNP) following uninformative response cues. Consistent with this finding, when the informative response cue was valid and was assigned to the many:1 probe response that had just served as the prime distractor response, inhibitory aftereffects were eliminated, when the probe target appeared at the prime distractor position (IR trial) or at a new location (distractor?Cresponse repeat trial). Blocked retrieval of stored distractor-processing representations was proposed as the mechanism for inhibitory aftereffect prevention.     

Enhanced probing of attentional bias: The independence of anxiety-linked selectivity in attentional engagement with and disengagement from negative information

Cognitive models of anxiety posit that an attentional bias to negative information plays a causal role in elevated anxiety vulnerability and dysfunction. There has been considerable recent interest in determining whether this attentional bias reflects facilitated attentional engagement with and/or impaired attentional disengagement from negative information. We concur with the claim of investigators who have noted that the methodologies previously employed to dissociate engagement and disengagement biases are not optimal for this purpose. In the present study, we employ a novel methodology, the Attentional Response to Distal vs. Proximal Emotional Information (ARDPEI) task, which enables the discrete assessment of these two types of attentional selectivity. The findings demonstrate that facilitated attentional engagement with and impaired attentional disengagement from negative information both characterise elevated anxiety vulnerability. Further, these biases represent distinctive facets of anxiety-linked attentional selectivity. We discuss the potentially differing roles that engagement and disengagement biases may play in the development and/or maintenance of anxiety vulnerability and dysfunction.     

Age-group Differences in Inhibiting an Oculomotor Response

ABSTRACT

Age-group differences were examined in the delayed oculomotor response task, which requires that observers delay the execution of a saccade (eye movement) toward an abrupt-onset visual cue. This task differs from antisaccade and attentional capture in that inhibition causes saccades to be postponed, not redirected. Older adults executed more premature saccades than young adults, but there were no age-group differences in latency or accuracy of saccades executed at the proper time. The results suggest that older adults are less capable of inhibiting a prepotent saccadic response, but that other aspects of visual working memory related to the task are preserved.