Attention enhances apparent perceptual organization

Perceptual organization and selective attention are two crucial processes that influence how we perceive visual information. The former structures complex visual inputs into coherent units, whereas the later selects relevant information. Attention and perceptual organization can modulate each other, affecting visual processing and performance in various tasks and conditions. Here, we tested whether attention can alter the way multiple elements appear to be perceptually organized. We manipulated covert spatial attention using a rapid serial visual presentation task, and measured perceptual organization of two multielements arrays organized by luminance similarity as rows or columns, at both the attended and unattended locations. We found that the apparent perceptual organization of the multielement arrays is intensified when attended and attenuated when unattended. We ruled out response bias as an alternative explanation. These findings reveal that attention enhances the appearance of perceptual organization, a midlevel vision process, altering the way we perceive our visual environment.     

Countering illegibility: Religion,ethnicity and sexuality in public debates and lived experience in Belgium

In this article, I set out to explore various intersectional social constructions of ethnicity, religion and sexuality. First, I conduct an analysis of recent public controversies in Flanders (Belgium) about women’s and (homo)sexual equality as set against religious authorities and religious-ethnic minorities. It reveals how dominant understandings of ethnicity, sexuality and religion are constructed, reinforced and, if needed, defended. Second, I foreground a critical counter-voice negotiating these what I call ‘ethno-sexular’ boundary constructions. I analyse the lived experiences of Hajar, a volunteer of an antiracist LGBTQI organisation located in Brussels, and argue that because of a dominant ethno-sexular discourse, Hajar’s hybrid identifications and critical voice is made illegible in much of her social environment.     

An ethics perspective on transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and human neuromodulation

This paper concerns the ethics of human neuromodulation using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). We examine the challenges of modulating the brain with TMS through the research ethics lens and in clinical medicine for treating frank pathology, primarily in psychiatric diseases. We also consider contemporary issues raised in the neuroethics literature about managing unexpected findings, and relate these to TMS and to other frontier neurotechnology that is becoming openly available in the public domain. We argue that safety and informed consent are of paramount importance for TMS, but that personal values and sociocultural factors must also be considered when examining the promise of this technology and applications that ought to be highlighted for extra precautions.     

Attention alters the appearance of motion coherence

Selective attention enhances visual information processing, as measured by behavioral performance and neural activity. However, little is known about its effects on subjective experience. Here, we investigated the effect of transient (exogenous) attention on the appearance of visual motion, using a psychophysical procedure that directly measures appearance and controls for response bias. Observers viewed pairs of moving dot patterns and reported the motion direction of the more coherent pattern. Directing attention (via a peripheral precue) to a stimulus location increased its perceived coherence level and improved performance on a direction discrimination task. In a control experiment, we ruled out response bias by lengthening the time interval between the cue and the stimuli, so that the effect of transient attention could no longer be exerted. Our results are consistent with those of neurophysiological studies showing that attention modulates motion processing and provide evidence of a subjective perceptual correlate of attention, with a concomitant effect on performance.     

Attention alters the appearance of spatial frequency and gap size

Transient attention is the automatic and short-lasting preferential processing of an area in visual space initiated by sudden stimulation in the same vicinity. Transient attention enhances early visual processing in a variety of dimensions, increasing contrast sensitivity, spatial resolution, and acuity. A recent study established that the increase in contrast sensitivity is accompanied by an increase in apparent contrast. In the present study, we investigated whether the effects of transient attention on spatial resolution and acuity are accompanied by corresponding phenomenological changes in these dimensions. The data indicate that transient attention increases the apparent spatial frequency of Gabor stimuli (Experiment 1) and increases apparent gap size in a Landolt-square acuity task (Experiment 2). Transient attention not only affects basic visual processing-it changes what one experiences.     

An online measure of thought suppression

An online thought-suppression paradigm was developed to test predictions of ironic process theory. Participants concentrated on or suppressed a particular semantic category. Semantic activation was indexed by the latency to name words from the category. In Experiments 1 and 2, an analog intrusion was introduced while participants were trying to suppress the information. Results consistent with ironic process theory were observed using words with polar opposites in Experiment 1 and words without polar opposites in Experiment 2. To determine whether these effects were dependent on the analog intrusion, Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 1 without the intrusion. Concentration generated semantic activation, but suppression exacerbated this activation. The data imply that hyperaccessibility results from efforts to suppress, whereas the processes of thought suppression identified by ironic process theory require the presence of material inconsistent with a desired cognitive state.