Attentional prioritisation of threatening information: Examining the role of the size of the attentional window

In line with most models of emotion, research has shown that threatening information receives attentional priority over neutral information. Recently, it has been suggested that the degree to which participants divide their attention across the visual field (the attentional window) may modulate the extent to which salient objects are attentionally prioritised. In the current study, participants were required to identify a target inside one of a variable number of coloured circles. One colour (Conditioned Stimulus, CS +) was fear-conditioned using an electrocutaneous stimulus at tolerance level. This search task was combined with a go/no-go task that required participants to either divide attention across the visual field to create a broad attentional window (global group), or focus their attention on the fixation point to create a narrow attentional window (local group). The results showed that only in the global group was the CS + colour prioritised over the neutral colours, indicating that a broader attentional window leads to enhanced attentional prioritisation of threat. Implications for research on attentional bias to threat are discussed.     

Preferential processing of visual trauma-film reminders predicts subsequent intrusive memories

This study used an analogue design to test the hypothesis that preferential processing of visual trauma reminders in the aftermath of a stressful or traumatic event gives rise to subsequent intrusive memories. Shortly after the presentation of a stressful film fragment, participants (n=36) were asked to detect neutral targets (rotated buildings or nature scenes) in a single target rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm. During half of the streams, the target was preceded by a distracter. The distracters consisted of visual images extracted from an earlier presented stressful film (e.g., persons and objects that figured in the film). The degree of interference by these film reminders predicted subsequent intrusions recorded in a one-week diary. The results provide evidence that a deficient ability to obtain attentional control over perceptual “trauma” reminders during goal-directed behaviour may set people at risk for persistent intrusive memories. Implications for research investigating attentional bias and intrusive memories in context of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are discussed.     

Treating Survivors of Terrorism While Adversity Continues

Abstract

The current situation in Israel of continuous terrorist attacks poses unique challenges to the treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This article addresses issues that arise when treating survivors of ongoing terrorism. These include: (a) Is PTSD treatable during ongoing adversity? (b) When should treatment be offered? (c) Is avoidance maladaptive or adaptive? (d) How does one deal with re-exposure? (e) How to define the end of treatment? and (f) What are the effects on the therapist when conducting treatment during ongoing adversity? Case studies are provided to illustrate these issues when treating clients with PTSD during ongoing terror.     

The pigeon's discrimination of shape and location information

Two groups of pigeons (n = 4) were trained with 16 line drawings portraying a fixed shape and a variable shape. The four variable shapes (a wedge, a cone, a cylinder, and a handle) appeared to the left of, to the right of, above, or below the fixed shape (a cube). Group Shape (S) was required to discriminate the identity of the variable shape that was mated with the cube, whereas Group Location (L) was required to discriminate where the variable shape appeared relative to the cube. Three of the four pigeons in each group mastered their respective tasks. Later tests revealed that the two groups of pigeons had attended to different aspects of the shape pairs, even though the visual stimuli and general procedures they had been given were the same. Group S had attended to the identity of the variable shape and had ignored the identity and location of the cube, whereas Group L had attended to the configuration of the two shapes. The methods and stimuli could be useful in delineating the biological bases of shape and location perception.     

Accurate identification but no priming and chance recognition memory for pictures in RSVP sequences

In 1969, Potter and Levy reported that recognition memory of accurately perceived RSVP pictures was extremely low, an effect that they attributed to disruption of memory consolidation. Here we report that the repetition of an RSVP picture (72-126 msec/picture) up to 31 times prior to when it became a target had no effect on identification accuracy. At these rates, forced-choice recognition memory was at chance. Single presentations of the pictures outside of the RSVP sequences readily resulted in substantial priming of their identification within the sequences. We offer a neural interpretation of Potter and Levy's explanation, as well as contemporary two-stage accounts of RSVP memory and attentional phenomena, based on the recent finding (Tovee & Rolls, 1995) that most of the information in inferior temporal cells is conveyed in the first 50msec of firing but the cells continue their activity for an additional 350msec. The additional activity, by our account, is required for memory and it is this activity that may be disrupted by attention to the next image during RSVP presentations. The critical factor for priming, if not memory in general, may be attention to the stimulus for a few hundred milliseconds beyond that required for its identification. Single-trial presentations thus manifest robust memory and priming effects - even when the stimulus cannot be identified - whereas RSVP conditions in which the stimulus can be identified result in poor memory.     

Stimulus-specific dynamics of learning in conjunction search tasks

We investigated the time course of learning in visual search for within-dimension conjunctions in homogeneous (inverted V in Vs) or heterogeneous distractors (L in 90° counterclockwise-rotated Ls and 180° rotated Ls), and for across-dimension conjunctions search (green\in green/s and red\s). Two learning sessions of 10 and 5 blocks each took place three months apart. In the first session, the reduction in mean search time was greater for within-dimension conjunctions with heterogeneous distractors. Learning endured from one session to the other for all stimuli, suggesting that learning can be long-term in search for feature conjunctions. However, when the positional regularity between elements was perturbed, the effect of prior learning was reduced for homogeneous within-dimension conjunctions. This suggests that, for these stimuli, learning facilitates grouping by positional regularity. Finally, the learning effect with homogeneous withindimension conjunctions disappeared when both target and distractors were rotated to modify the orientation of conjunction patterns. This suggests that learning improves a grouping mechanism selective for the relative orientations of combined form features.     

The attentional window configures to object and surface boundaries

Attention can select items based on location or features. Belopolsky and colleagues posited the attentional window hypothesis, which theorized that spatial and featural selection interact such that featural selection occurs within a “window” of spatial selection. Kerzel and colleagues recently found that the attentional window can take complex shapes, but cannot configure around non-contiguous locations. The current experiments investigated whether perceptual grouping cues, which produce perceptual objects or surfaces, enable the attentional window to configure around non-contiguous locations. Using the additional singleton paradigm, we reasoned that observers (1) would be slowed by a colour singleton distractor that appears within the observers’ attentional window and (2) would be unaffected by distractors that do not appear within the attentional window. In separate blocks of trials, a target appeared upon one of two objects. Observers were cued to the relevant surface, and we asked if responses were affected by distractors on the cued task-relevant surface, and on the uncued irrelevant surface. Colour singleton distractors slowed responses when they appeared on the cued surface, even when those locations were non-contiguous locations. Distractors on the irrelevant surface did not affect responses. The results support a highly adaptable attentional window that is configurable to the surfaces and boundaries established by intermediate-level vision.     

The role of cultural factors and attitudes for pedestrian behaviour in an urban Turkish sample

There is a limited number of studies that examine the role of cultural factors and attitudes related to pedestrian behaviour. The aim of this study was to explore the role of cultural variables (i.e. vertical and horizontal collectivism, and individualism, as well as uncertainty avoidance) and attitudes towards pedestrian safety for reported risk-taking pedestrian behaviour in a sample of urban Turkish road users. An additional aim was to test whether the cultural factors had mediated relations to pedestrian behaviour through attitudes towards pedestrian safety. The results are based on an urban Turkish sample (n = 289, response rate = 64%) established in Izmir and Istanbul. The sample consisted of 169 females and 120 males. Their age ranged from 15 to 78 years (M = 32.00, SD = 13.89). A regression analysis showed that the cultural factors added to the explained variance of risky pedestrian behaviour above demographic and exposure-relevant control variables as well as attitudes towards pedestrian safety. Structural Equation Modeling showed that a mediated model had good fit and explained about 60% of the variance in attitudes towards pedestrian safety and 24% in pedestrian behaviour. Within this model, vertical collectivism related to lower levels of pedestrian risk-taking behaviour, while horizontal collectivism was related to higher levels of risk-taking behaviour. As expected, safe attitudes were related to lower levels of risk-taking pedestrian behaviour. The results are discussed in relation to hierarchy and authority orientations facilitated by the specific cultural factors and how such tendencies may relate to pedestrian risk-taking behaviour.     

Aging Extends the Time Required to Switch Cognitive Set

ABSTRACT

The Attentional Blink (AB) refers to a decrease in the chance of detecting a second target in a rapid sequence of items if it occurs within approximately 500 ms of a first target. In this study the efficiency of establishing and switching cognitive set for older adults (mean age 71.62 years) relative to young adults (mean age 21.33 years) was investigated. Three increasingly complex conditions of the AB paradigm were employed, each of which required participants to identify a coloured square (T1) and a letter (T2) within a stream of distracters. Accuracy of identification of T2 decreased for both young and older adults as complexity increased. In Condition 1, selection criteria for both targets were fully specified, while T1 acted as a direct cue to the selection criteria for T2 in Condition 2. Older participants took longer to establish cognitive set in this condition. Condition 3 contained an added requirement to activate a pre-determined rule for T2 selection. The basic requirement to establish cognitive set ‘online’, however, seemed to disguise any additional potential problems associated with the additional load required for Condition 3 for older adults. Younger adults were cognitively slowed in Condition 3 relative to Condition 2, suggesting that it is the need to use an internally generated cue to switch cognitive set that requires extra time for them. The significantly larger AB demonstrated by the older participants indicated an impaired ability to rapidly establish cognitive set. The findings are discussed in light of the current literature on cognitive aging, the AB and task switching.     

Should We Approach Approach and Avoid Avoidance? An Inquiry from Different Levels

Abstract

Approach motivation (striving for desired end-states, eagerly focusing on where one wants to be) is often held up as the best type of motivation: It feels good and is associated with many positive outcomes. Indeed, a common perception is that regulation in terms of approach motivation is almost always better than regulation in terms of avoidance motivation. However, as we discuss, this conclusion is worthy of a deeper look. We consider how approach and avoidance motivation manifest at different levels in a self-regulatory hierarchy and how this can help us understand the upsides and downsides of both approach and avoidance motivation. In other words, approach motivation is not always beneficial and avoidance motivation is not always problematic. Understanding these trade-offs involves a consideration of which level in the hierarchy approach or avoidance is manifested, what types of outcomes are being examined (the experience of regulation vs. performance), and how the approach or avoidance regulation fits or does not fit with an individual’s broad concerns or specific situational demands. Furthermore, a hierarchical approach helps make sense of behaviors that reflect simultaneous approach and avoidance tendencies, such as tactical approach to remove (avoid) a threat, providing a dynamic and nuanced view of motivation.