Mind the gap: Misdirection, inattentional blindness and the relationship between overt and covert attention

The present commentary addresses two issues arising from Memmert’s (2010) paper. First, can the ‘misdirection’ and ‘inattentional blindness’ paradigms provide important insights into the relationship between ‘overt’ and ‘covert’ attentional processes? Second, what are the most fruitful directions for research that seeks to combine these attentional paradigms in ecologically valid settings? We argue that although Memmert’s (2010) paper postulates several important differences between the misdirection and inattentional blindness paradigms, it may not emphasise sufficiently strongly the significant insights into attention that have been yielded by the former approach. To illustrate, we discuss the utility of the misdirection paradigm in providing an ecologically valid method to investigate the relationship between overt and covert attentional processes. Such naturalistic methods are required to ensure optimal integration of the misdirection and inattentional blindness paradigms within a general theory of attention.     

特殊的视错觉：运动诱导视盲

突显的静止目标被一定空间范围内运动背景所覆盖时, 人类会感受到静止目标消失再重现的发生, 这种视错觉现象叫做运动诱导视盲(motion-induced blindness, MIB)。该现象成因的理论解释主要有：注意竞争理论、知觉完型加工理论以及神经生理机制相关理论。作为特殊的视错觉现象, 该现象与其他盲视现象不同,主要是由客体识别过程中的知觉变化引起; 另一方面, 运动诱导视盲中“反知觉”现象的特殊性也是研究者关注的问题之一。神经生理机制层面的研究关注早期、晚期皮层在该现象发生时的变化, 采用眼动、脑电等技术对错觉现象发生时程进行测量与评估。文章在总结已有相关研究的基础上进一步指出今后可深入探索的研究方向有：MIB发生的深层机制、作为研究意识神经相关、无意识知觉加工等课题的工具、MIB中的意义性加工与认知冲突等。     

重复知盲效应产生的机制——来自汉语叠词加工的证据

以汉语中的叠词为实验材料,对重复知盲产生机制的类型标记个体化理论和建构理论进行检验。采用RSVP研究范式,在两个实验中让178名被试口头报告列表中出现的所有汉字（全部报告）或列表中最后两个字（部分报告）。结果发现：（1）在呈现速率为128ms和198ms时,完全重复的汉字在全部报告和部分报告任务中均存在RB效应,但在部分报告任务下出现的RB相比全部报告任务的减少了,符合建构理论的假设。（2）在全部报告条件下,不仅重复刺激的正确报告率会降低,而且与重复刺激相关的非重复刺激的正确报告率也会降低。研究表明建构理论比类型标记个体化理论更能解释RB效应的产生机制。     

情绪诱发视盲任务中的情绪注意控制机制：来自脑电ERP和时频分析的证据

采用脑电时频分析技术,对情绪诱发视盲任务中的情绪控制机制进行了分析。实验设置负性图片、中性图片及填充图片三种干扰刺激条件,关注被试正确完成目标识别时的干扰刺激加工过程。实验结果发现,负性与中性干扰刺激在注意加工阶段均较控制性的填充图片条件诱发前额中央分布的theta同步化效应,而且负性刺激所诱发的此效应又较中性情绪刺激更多分布在左侧前额和颞枕部。实验结果表明：（1）情绪诱发视盲任务下被试确实存在对于情绪干扰刺激的自上而下控制;（2）相比中性干扰刺激,负性干扰刺激在EIB中的情绪注意控制机制不仅包括前人所发现的后部颞枕区对刺激识别的注意控制,而且包括前额叶参与下的负性情绪控制。     

Testing the implicit processing hypothesis of precognitive dream experience

Seemingly precognitive (prophetic) dreams may be a result of one’s unconscious processing of environmental cues and having an implicit inference based on these cues manifest itself in one’s dreams. We present two studies exploring this implicit processing hypothesis of precognitive dream experience. Study 1 investigated the relationship between implicit learning, transliminality, and precognitive dream belief and experience. Participants completed the Serial Reaction Time task and several questionnaires. We predicted a positive relationship between the variables. With the exception of relationships between transliminality and precognitive dream belief and experience, this prediction was not supported. Study 2 tested the hypothesis that differences in the ability to notice subtle cues explicitly might account for precognitive dream beliefs and experiences. Participants completed a modified version of the flicker paradigm. We predicted a negative relationship between the ability to explicitly detect changes and precognitive dream variables. This relationship was not found. There was also no relationship between precognitive dream belief and experience and implicit change detection.     

Late‐ but not early‐onset blindness impairs the development of audio‐haptic multisensory integration

Integrating different senses to reduce sensory uncertainty and increase perceptual precision can have an important compensatory function for individuals with visual impairment and blindness. However, how visual impairment and blindness impact the development of optimal multisensory integration in the remaining senses is currently unknown. Here we first examined how audio‐haptic integration develops and changes across the life span in 92 sighted (blindfolded) individuals between 7 and 70 years of age. We used a child‐friendly task in which participants had to discriminate different object sizes by touching them and/or listening to them. We assessed whether audio‐haptic performance resulted in a reduction of perceptual uncertainty compared to auditory‐only and haptic‐only performance as predicted by maximum‐likelihood estimation model. We then compared how this ability develops in 28 children and adults with different levels of visual experience, focussing on low‐vision individuals and blind individuals that lost their sight at different ages during development. Our results show that in sighted individuals, adult‐like audio‐haptic integration develops around 13–15 years of age, and remains stable until late adulthood. While early‐blind individuals, even at the youngest ages, integrate audio‐haptic information in an optimal fashion, late‐blind individuals do not. Optimal integration in low‐vision individuals follows a similar developmental trajectory as that of sighted individuals. These findings demonstrate that visual experience is not necessary for optimal audio‐haptic integration to emerge, but that consistency of sensory information across development is key for the functional outcome of optimal multisensory integration.     

感知运动经验在心理时间线形成中的作用—来自盲生的证据

本研究考察视觉和读写习惯有关的感知运动经验是如何影响心理时间形成的。实验1和实验2分别采用一天内和一生中的词语或短句,以小学三年级的普生和盲生为被试,结果发现不论是短的还是长的时间,普生对早的刺激按左键,晚的刺激按右键反应更快,而盲生未出现早左晚右的心理时间线。实验3和实验4分别以短时间和长时间范围的时间词为材料,以初一盲生和普生为被试,结果发现普生和盲生都是对过去的时间按左键,未来的时间按右键反应快;而且在长的时间范围内,盲生的反应时长于普生。结果表明视觉是心理时间线的基础,阅读经验在盲生心理时间线的形成中起着关键作用。     

Semantically incongruent objects attract eye gaze when viewing scenes for change

Past research has shown that change detection performance is often more efficient for target objects that are semantically incongruent with a surrounding scene context than for target objects that are semantically congruent with the scene context. One account of these findings is that attention is attracted to objects for which the identity of the object conflicts with the meaning of the scene, perhaps as a violation of expectancies created by earlier recruitment of scene gist information. An alternative account of the performance benefit for incongruent objects is that attention is more apt to linger on incongruent objects, as perhaps identifying these objects is more difficult due to conflicting information from the scene context. In the current experiment, we present natural scenes in a change detection task while monitoring eye movements. We find that eye gaze is attracted to these objects relatively early during scene processing.     

Repetition blindness and homophone blindness in young and older adults

We tested age effects on repetition blindness (RB), defined as the reduced probability of reporting a target word following presentation of the same word in a rapidly presented list. We also tested age effects on homophone blindness (HB), in which the first word is a homophone of the target word rather than a repeated word. Thirty young and 28 older adults viewed rapidly presented lists of words containing repeated, homophone, or unrepeated word pairs and reported all of the words immediately after each list. Older adults exhibited a greater degree of RB and HB than young adults using a conditional scoring method that provides certainty that blindness has occurred. The existence of RB and HB for both age groups, and increased blindness for older compared to young adults, supports predictions of a binding theory that has successfully accounted for a wide range of phenomena in cognitive aging.     

Being white,being Jungian: implications of Jung’s encounter with the ‘non-European’ other1

This personal account charts the changing relationship to a Jungian identity arising from the interrelated processes of understanding the roots of the colonial and racial ideologies that underpin Jung’s thinking, and a developing awareness of what it means to be a white person in a system of racism that maintains white supremacy. This is illustrated with reference to the image of a black man appearing in the dream of the white author and with use of post-Jungian thinking to critique the notion of an objective, non-racial psyche.