Affective Influences of Selective Attention

ABSTRACT— Processes of selective attention and emotion operate together in prioritizing thoughts and actions. Abundant evidence suggests that emotionally salient stimuli and affective states can determine how visual attention is allocated. However, the brain regions mediating the effects of attention and emotion include shared and reciprocally connected structures. This raises an intriguing question about a reciprocal effect: Does attention also influence emotional responses? Here we review a series of studies that show that indeed it does. The results indicate that attention has a negative affective impact for otherwise neutral visual stimuli (abstract patterns and unfamiliar faces) that must be ignored or otherwise inhibited during the performance of a task. Finding that selective attention has distinct affective consequences for visual stimuli represents a new, fundamental discovery about the relation between the two main systems of prioritization in the human brain.     

Suppression in object-based attention

This study examines suppression in object-based attention in three experiments using an object-based attention task similar to Egly, R., Driver, J., & Rafal, R. D. (1994. Shifting visual attention between objects and locations: Evidence from normal and parietal lesion subjects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 123(2), 161–177. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.123.2.161) with the addition of a distractor. In Experiment 1 participants identified a target object at one of four ends of two rectangles. The target location was validly cued on 72% of trials. The remaining 28% were located on the same or a different object. Sixty-eight percent of trials also included a distractor on one of the two objects. Experiment 1 failed to show suppression when a distractor was present, but did demonstrate the spread of attention across the attended object when no distractor was present. Experiment 2 added a mask to the paradigm to make the task more difficult and engage suppression. When suppression was engaged in the task, data showed suppression on the unattended (different) object, but not on the attended (same) object. Experiment 3 replicated findings from Experiment 1 and 2 using a within participants design. Findings are discussed in relation to the role of suppression in visual selective attention.     

An intervention that increases parental sensitivity in families referred to Child Protective Services also changes toddlers’ parasympathetic regulation

Experiencing maltreatment in early childhood predicts poor parasympathetic regulation, characterized by low baseline parasympathetic activity and strong withdrawal of parasympathetic influence in response to tasks. The Promoting First Relationships^® (PFR) program improves parental sensitivity toward young children in families identified as maltreating. Using a subsample from a randomized control trial, we examined whether parental participation in PFR had lasting effects on toddlers’ parasympathetic regulation, as measured by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), relative to a resource and referral control condition. In addition, we examined whether parental sensitive and responsive behavior mediated or moderated associations between parent treatment group and children's RSA. More than 6 months after completing treatment, 29 families in the PFR condition and 30 families in the control condition were visited at home, and toddlers’ RSA was assessed at baseline and during five moderately challenging tasks. Groups did not differ in baseline RSA, but differed in RSA reactivity to the tasks. Across tasks, toddlers of parents in the control condition manifested significantly larger RSA decreases than toddlers of parents in the PFR condition. Parental behavior showed divergent associations with RSA change for toddlers of parents in the PFR versus control condition, with PFR treatment predicting RSA change ranging from small decreases to increases in toddlers of parents who showed the most sensitive, responsive behavior in the 6 months following treatment. This preliminary study showed that the same intervention that improved parenting also improved toddlers’ parasympathetic regulation in response to everyday activities, warranting further experimental investigation.     

Meaning‐making in women's tattooed bodies

Tattooed women's practices of resistance and conformity are constituted within social, cultural, and historical contexts that produce normative values around “good” and “bad” tattoos. Tattoos enable the performance of multiple femininities, constructing the female body in a way that is personal and meaningful to that individual and opening an agentic space in which they can do so. The vast majority of research that is available on tattoos concerns mostly men or, at least, does not fully understand the implications of specific gendered discourses that regulate the (feminine) body. In this paper, we argue that meaning‐making for women's tattoos serves to function as legitimating, producing tattooed feminine bodies as more acceptable. We argue for a closer examination of the regulatory discourses that feed into the choices that women make in relation to their tattooed bodies.     

Resilient Senior Russian-Australian Voices: “We Live to Sing and Sing to Live”

Applied Research in Quality of Life - This research examines the understandings and meanings of shared music making held by the members of the Young Hearts Russian choir in Melbourne, Australia and...     

Inquiry and Belief

In this paper I look at belief and degrees of belief through the lens of inquiry. I argue that belief and degrees of belief play different roles in inquiry. In particular I argue that belief is a “settling” attitude in a way that degrees of belief are not. Along the way I say more about what inquiring amounts to, argue for a central norm of inquiry connecting inquiry and belief and say more about just what it means to have an inquiry or question settled.     

Reviews: Books

SCHOPENHAUER'S PORCUPINES: INTIMACY AND ITS DILEMMAS. By Deborah Anna Luepnitz. 275 pp. New York: Basic Books, 2002. $25.00. CITY OF ONE A MEMOIR. By Francine Cournos. 253 pp. New York: Plume, 2000. $12.95. YIDDISHE KOP: CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING IN JEWISH LEARNING, LORE, AND HUMOR. By Rabbi Nilton Bonder. Boston: Shambhala, 1999.     

The effect of different soothing interventions on infant crying and on parent–infant interaction

Conducted in the home environment, this study examines the effects of three complementary soothing techniques on the duration of infant crying and on caregiver–infant interaction. In one group, the caregivers apply massage; in another, they provide supplemental carrying to their infants, and in the last, the caregivers both massage and provide supplemental carrying. Measurements, for the one control and three treatment groups took place prenatally (third trimester) and in the first 16 weeks postpartum for parental perception of infant temperament, parental sense of competence, parent–infant interaction, and the duration of infant crying. Whereas analyses indicate no statistically significant differences between groups in reducing infant crying, results approached significance (p ≤ .06) in favor of the combined supplemental carrying/massage group. These results challenge accepted beliefs that tactile stimulation and/or supplemental carrying enhance parental sense of competence, positive parental perceptions, and interactions with infants. Practitioners can apply these conclusions when counselling parents on the advisability of selecting any one complementary soothing technique. ©2002 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Marital Adjustment and Irrational Beliefs

The present study was designed to determine which aspects of Ellis' irrational beliefs as well as emotional traits (anxiety, curiosity, anger) differentiate couples attending marriage counseling from couples couple not attending marriage counseling as well as levels of marital satisfaction in couples as measured by the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test. Participants were 61 married couples, 18 of whom were attending marriage counseling and 43 who were not attending marriage counseling. Each partner completed a number of self-report questionnaires containing items measuring irrational /rational beliefs, anger, anxiety and curiosity, and communication skills. Correlational and multiple regression analyses indicate support for Albert Ellis' proposition concerning the importance of individual partner's emotional traits and accompanying irrational beliefs in marital adjustment and dissatisfaction. Self-downing and need for comfort were the dimensions of irrational thinking most strongly related to marital dysfunction. Anger, anxiety but neither curiosity nor communication skills distinguished individuals experiencing or not experiencing marital problems. Implications for relationship counseling are briefly discussed.