选择性注意中的客体与空间因素

注意选择理论可以分为空间选择和客体选择两大模型,文章首先介绍了这两类模型的观点,概述了客体选择和空间因素的关系与区别,也介绍了包括距离操纵和线索启动在内的客体选择和空间选择分离技术及其理论逻辑。     

社会性预期优势效应的神经机制

社会性预期优势效应是指个体在预期条件下的信息加工能力显著优于非预期条件。探讨社会性预期优势效应的神经机制, 是心理学家和认知神经科学家关注的一项重要课题。社会性预期编码模型可以为预期静默效应(预期刺激引起的神经活动减弱)提供理论解释, 但该模型不能解释社会性预期刺激诱发的增强神经活动。因此, 研究1和研究2将考察无意识和意识社会性注意在社会性预期编码模型中的作用, 从而将它们整合到该模型中。研究3不再局限于对社会性预期编码模型的考察, 而是扩展到对预期转换机制的探讨, 最终将社会性预期编码模型和预期转换机制整合在预期节俭化框架之下。对于社会性预期优势效应神经机制的研究不仅能够完善社会性预期编码模型, 还有助于拓宽社会性预期研究的视角。     

Objects but not concepts modulate the size of the attended region

Here we investigated the types of stimuli that modulate the size of the attentional spotlight. In particular, it has been previously shown that conceptual cues that either directly refer to or are semantically related to particular spatial locations can shift attention to that location (known as “conceptual cueing”). For example, reading the word sun or joy can shift attention upward whereas the word boot or hostile can shift attention downward. Here, therefore, we tested whether words could modulate the size of the attended area. Across five experiments, we found that words that either directly referred to, or were abstractly associated with, particular sizes (small versus large) did not change the size of the attentional spotlight, whereas the presence of differently sized stimuli did, as evidenced by faster responses to targets when the spotlight is small than when it is large. This suggests that physical but not conceptual inducers can modulate the size of the attentional spotlight. This highlights an important difference between the regulation of spotlight size and shifts of attention, supporting the notion that they are subserved by distinct mechanisms.     

With task experience students learn to ignore the content,not just the location of irrelevant information

Presentation of irrelevant additional information hampers learning. However, using a word-learning task, recent research demonstrated that an initial negative effect of mismatching pictures on learning no longer occurred once learners gained task experience. It is unclear, however, whether learners consciously suppressed attention to the content of the mismatching pictures. Therefore, we examined the effects of a picture location change towards the end of the learning phase: for half of the participants, the picture location was changed after they gained task experience. If participants only ignore the location of mismatching pictures, word learning in the mismatched condition should be hampered after the location change. Changing the location of the mismatching pictures did not affect recall in the mismatched condition, but, surprisingly, the location change did hamper learning in the matched condition. In sum, it seems that participants learned to ignore the content, and not just the location of the irrelevant information.     

Subliminal spatial cues capture attention and strengthen between-object link

According to the spreading hypothesis of object-based attention, a subliminal cue that can successfully capture attention to a location within an object should also cause attention to spread throughout the whole cued object and lead to the same-object advantage. Instead, we propose that a subliminal cue favors shifts of attention between objects and strengthens the between-object link, which is coded primarily within the dorsal pathway that governs the visual guidance of action. By adopting the two-rectangle method and using an effective subliminal cue to compare with the classic suprathreshold cue, we found a different result pattern with suprathreshold cues than with subliminal cues. The suprathreshold cue replicated the conventional location and object effects, whereas a subliminal cue led to a different-object advantage with a facilitatory location effect and a same-object advantage with an inhibitory location effect. These results support our consciousness-dependent shifting hypothesis but not the spreading hypothesis.     

Sustained attention development during the toddlerhood to preschool period: associations with toddlers' emotion regulation strategies and maternal behaviour

The current study examined the role of maternal behaviour and toddlers' emotion regulation strategies in the development of children's sustained attention abilities. Participants for this study included 447 children (232 girls) obtained from three different cohorts participating in a larger ongoing longitudinal study. When the children were 2 years of age, mothers brought their children to the laboratory and were videotaped during several tasks designed to elicit emotion regulation and mother–child interaction. Sustained attention was also measured at the same visit via a laboratory task and in a subsequent visit when children were 4.5 years of age. Results indicated that toddlers' use of help‐seeking emotion regulation strategies was positively related to sustained attention, while avoidance behaviours and maternal behaviour characterized by high levels of overcontrolling/intrusiveness were negatively related to sustained attention at age 2. Significant interactions emerged such that high levels of maternal warmth/responsiveness buffered the negative associations between low use of distraction and high use of self‐comforting emotion regulation strategies and sustained attention at age 2. Maternal behaviour characterized by high levels of warmth/responsiveness also predicted greater growth in sustained attention from age 2 to 4.5. These findings are discussed in terms of how maternal behaviours and children's use of active versus passive emotion regulation strategies relate to sustained attention abilities. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence de la préparation d’une atteinte manuelle sur l’orientation initiale de l’attention lors d’une tâche de recherche visuelle

This paper deals with the links between spatial attention and reaching movement's motor preparation. During a visual search task, participants prepare to manually reach a button of the numeric keypad and execute it when they find an intruder on the screen. The experimental devices allowed us to control two directions: on the one hand, the direction of the response button's manual reach (on the horizontal plane) and on the other hand, the direction of the intruder's direct attentional reach, starting from the fixation point (on the vertical plane). The results show that: (a) reaction times are shorter when there is a directional congruence between these two directions than when there is incongruence; (b) this effect is significant when attention is voluntarily shifted, whereas it is no longer significant when attention is automatically captured by an intruder. These results suggest that visual search's initial direction is determined by the prepared manual reach. These data are discussed in the premotor theory of attention's framework.     

Integrating information from two pictorial animations: Complexity and cognitive prerequisites influence performance

Dividing visual attention between spatially distinct sources of information could either be beneficial (if there is too much information for a single visualization) or detrimental (if interrelated information has to be mentally re‐integrated) for learning. We present a new display technology allowing for the presentation of two distinct animations by avoiding split foci of visual attention: learners are able to switch between animations by moving their head. We examined how 84 naïve learners integrated information in three presentation modes: the ‘vexing‐image’ mode displaying two animations, participants being able to switch between them without shifting the visual focus, a classical ‘split‐screen’ and an ‘overlaid’ condition. Results showed that reduced complexity led to higher performance. Further, we showed that participants with high mental rotation abilities were best in the ‘split‐screen’ mode, whereas participants with low mental rotation abilities benefited most from the ‘vexing‐image’. Theoretical and instructional consequences of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Diffusion models of the flanker task: discrete versus gradual attentional selection

The present study tested diffusion models of processing in the flanker task, in which participants identify a target that is flanked by items that indicate the same (congruent) or opposite response (incongruent). Single- and dual-process flanker models were implemented in a diffusion-model framework and tested against data from experiments that manipulated response bias, speed/accuracy tradeoffs, attentional focus, and stimulus configuration. There was strong mimcry among the models, and each captured the main trends in the data for the standard conditions. However, when more complex conditions were used, a single-process spotlight model captured qualitative and quantitative patterns that the dual-process models could not. Since the single-process model provided the best balance of fit quality and parsimony, the results indicate that processing in the simple versions of the flanker task is better described by gradual rather than discrete narrowing of attention.     

Observing shared attention modulates gaze following

Humans’ tendency to follow others’ gaze is considered to be rather resistant to top-down influences. However, recent evidence indicates that gaze following depends on prior eye contact with the observed agent. Does observing two people engaging in eye contact also modulate gaze following? Participants observed two faces looking at each other or away from each other before jointly shifting gaze to one of two locations. Targets appeared either at the cued location or at the non-cued location. In three experiments gaze cueing effects (faster responses to objects appearing at the cued location) were found only when the two faces had looked at each other before shifting gaze. In contrast, no effects of gaze following were observed when the two faces had looked away from each other. Thus, the attentional relation between observed people modulates whether their gaze is followed.