客体工作记忆对注意的导向作用：抑制动机的影响

通过两个实验验证了客体工作记忆内容对注意的导向过程是灵活可控的; 与客体工作记忆内容匹配的刺激既可以捕获注意, 也可以被抑制。实验1通过操作匹配试验概率来诱发不同水平的抑制动机, 考察在客体工作记忆内容对注意的导向作用中抑制动机的影响。匹配试验中有分心物与客体工作记忆内容相同。控制试验中所有搜索项目均与客体工作记忆内容不同。实验2保持实际匹配试验概率恒定, 仅通过改变指导语来调节抑制动机水平, 以排除练习的干扰。两实验结果均表明, 当抑制动机水平较低时, 匹配分心物会捕获注意; 而当抑制动机水平足够高时, 匹配分心物会被抑制。并且, 抑制动机水平的高低还会影响认知控制的效应量和时程。     

固定位置区域提示下视觉注意范围等级的ERP研究

研究视觉空间注意中注意范围的脑内时程的动态变化。被试为 14名青年人 ,使用固定位置的、3种不同直径的线圈作为注意范围的区域性提示 ,祛除空间定位因素的影响 ,记录反应时和事件相关电位 (ERP)数据。结果显示 :提示范围由小到中等时 ,反应时延长 ,而由中等到大范围时 ,反应时缩短 ;提示物和靶刺激诱发ERP的早成分 (N1、P1)不受提示范围大小的调节 ,而其P2、N2的波幅与潜伏期均明显受到提示范围大小的影响。这些结果说明 :①视觉注意诱发的P1、N1成分 ,主要与空间定位信息的加工相关 ;②提示物诱发的P2、N2成分与注意范围相关 ;③在视觉信息加工过程中 ,空间位置的信息要早于其它信息被加工 ,支持视觉信息串行加工观点     

从知觉负载理论来理解选择性注意

知觉负载理论被认为解决了选择性注意研究的早选择和晚选择观点之争。当前任务对注意资源的耗用程度决定了与任务无关的干扰刺激得到多少加工,从而导致在低知觉负载下,注意资源自动溢出去加工干扰刺激（晚选择）,而在高知觉负载下,注意资源被当前任务耗尽而无法加工干扰刺激（早选择）。知觉负载理论提出后,研究者进行了一系列研究。一部分工作专注于知觉负载对选择性注意的调节作用;另外一些工作则关注其他认知过程如何影响注意资源的分配,其中知觉负载与工作记忆负载的关系是当前关注重点。     

媒体多任务的效用：听觉信息干扰和视听信息整合的实验证据

采用心理旋转范式和词汇判断范式,探讨媒体多任务经验不同者在听觉信息干扰和视听信息整合情境下对图形一致性和真假词的判断表现。结果发现：（1）以判断图形一致性为实验任务,在无声和低音干扰条件下,低经验组的正确率均显著高于高经验组,两组的反应时差异均不显著;在高音干扰条件下,高经验组的反应时显著短于低经验组,正确率则没有显著差异。（2）以真假词判断为实验任务,对真词进行判断,在三种听觉条件下,高经验组在语音匹配条件下的反应时最短,与低经验组无显著差异,但正确率显著高于低经验组,与另两种听觉条件没有显著差异;低经验组在语音匹配条件下的反应时显著长于另两种听觉条件,正确率则显著高于无声条件,与不匹配条件差异不显著。对假词的判断,低经验组在三种听觉条件下的反应时均显著短于高经验组,正确率与高经验组均无显著差异。研究表明,媒体多任务经验丰富者相比经验缺乏者受到任务无关的纯短高音干扰的影响要小,在需要视听通道语义整合的加工中具有一定的优势。     

Degree of Language Experience Modulates Visual Attention to Visible Speech and Iconic Gestures During Clear and Degraded Speech Comprehension

Visual information conveyed by iconic hand gestures and visible speech can enhance speech comprehension under adverse listening conditions for both native and non‐native listeners. However, how a listener allocates visual attention to these articulators during speech comprehension is unknown. We used eye‐tracking to investigate whether and how native and highly proficient non‐native listeners of Dutch allocated overt eye gaze to visible speech and gestures during clear and degraded speech comprehension. Participants watched video clips of an actress uttering a clear or degraded (6‐band noise‐vocoded) action verb while performing a gesture or not, and were asked to indicate the word they heard in a cued‐recall task. Gestural enhancement was the largest (i.e., a relative reduction in reaction time cost) when speech was degraded for all listeners, but it was stronger for native listeners. Both native and non‐native listeners mostly gazed at the face during comprehension, but non‐native listeners gazed more often at gestures than native listeners. However, only native but not non‐native listeners' gaze allocation to gestures predicted gestural benefit during degraded speech comprehension. We conclude that non‐native listeners might gaze at gesture more as it might be more challenging for non‐native listeners to resolve the degraded auditory cues and couple those cues to phonological information that is conveyed by visible speech. This diminished phonological knowledge might hinder the use of semantic information that is conveyed by gestures for non‐native compared to native listeners. Our results demonstrate that the degree of language experience impacts overt visual attention to visual articulators, resulting in different visual benefits for native versus non‐native listeners.     

Keeping the Result in Sight and Mind: General Cognitive Principles and Language‐Specific Influences in the Perception and Memory of Resultative Events

We study how people attend to and memorize endings of events that differ in the degree to which objects in them are affected by an action: Resultative events show objects that undergo a visually salient change in state during the course of the event (peeling a potato), and non‐resultative events involve objects that undergo no, or only partial state change (stirring in a pan). We investigate general cognitive principles, and potential language‐specific influences, in verbal and nonverbal event encoding and memory, across two experiments with Dutch and Estonian participants. Estonian marks a viewer's perspective on an event's result obligatorily via grammatical case on direct object nouns: Objects undergoing a partial/full change in state in an event are marked with partitive/accusative case, respectively. Therefore, we hypothesized increased saliency of object states and event results in Estonian speakers, as compared to speakers of Dutch. Findings show (a) a general cognitive principle of attending carefully to endings of resultative events, implying cognitive saliency of object states in event processing; (b) a language‐specific boost on attention and memory of event results under verbal task demands in Estonian speakers. Results are discussed in relation to theories of event cognition, linguistic relativity, and thinking for speaking.     

The heterogeneity of attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms and conduct problems: Cognitive inhibition,emotion regulation,emotionality, and disorganized attachment

This study examined the contributions of several important domains of functioning to attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and conduct problems. Specifically, we investigated whether cognitive inhibition, emotion regulation, emotionality, and disorganized attachment made independent and specific contributions to these externalizing behaviour problems from a multiple pathways perspective. The study included laboratory measures of cognitive inhibition and disorganized attachment in 184 typically developing children (M age = 6 years, 10 months, SD = 1.7). Parental ratings provided measures of emotion regulation, emotionality, and externalizing behaviour problems. Results revealed that cognitive inhibition, regulation of positive emotion, and positive emotionality were independently and specifically related to ADHD symptoms. Disorganized attachment and negative emotionality formed independent and specific relations to conduct problems. Our findings support the multiple pathways perspective on ADHD, with poor regulation of positive emotion and high positive emotionality making distinct contributions to ADHD symptoms. More specifically, our results support the proposal of a temperamentally based pathway to ADHD symptoms. The findings also indicate that disorganized attachment and negative emotionality constitute pathways specific to conduct problems rather than to ADHD symptoms.     

Viewers prefer predictive cues

Devaluation-by-inhibition hypothesis demonstrated that previously ignored items are judged more negatively than previously attended and novel items. Based on this view, the present study investigated the evaluation of preceding stimuli that presumably elicit attentional processes to task-relevant stimuli. Accordingly, we employed a Posner-type cueing task followed by evaluation of the preceding cues indicating left and right directions. The important manipulation is predictability of two different preceding cues which predict the target location with high or with low probability. In Experiment 1 with two different arrows, a low predictive arrow was judged more negatively than a high predictive cue. Experiment 2 using gaze cues of two persons instead of two different arrows supported the findings of Experiment 1. These findings are consistent with devaluation-by-inhibition, suggesting that cue items triggering attention to the target are devaluated when they have less predictability.     

From Mackworth’s clock to the open road: A literature review on driver vigilance task operationalization

ObjectiveThis review aimed to characterize tasks applied in driving research, in terms of instructions/conditions, signal types/rates, and component features in comparison to the classic vigilance literature.BackgroundDriver state monitoring is facing increased attention with evolving vehicle automation, and real-time assessment of driver vigilance could provide widespread value across various levels (e.g., from monitoring the alertness of manual drivers to verifications of readiness in transitions of control between automated and manual driving). However, task requirement comparisons between the classic vigilance research and vigilance in car driving have not to date been systematically conducted.MethodThis study decomposed the highest-cited vigilance literature of each full decade since the 1940s for the situational features of the renowned vigilance decrement phenomenon originating from Mackworth (1948). A consensus set of 18 different situational features was compiled and included for example an (1) isolated (2) subject … perceiving (3) rare (4) signals … against (10) frequent (11) noise … in a (17) prolonged (18) task. Next, we reviewed 69 experimental vigilance task operationalizations (i.e., required signal detection and response) within 39 publications concerned with driving vigilance. All vigilance tasks were coded as “driving vigilance tasks” or “non-driving vigilance tasks” based on the perceptual signal and response action both belonging to normal driving activity or not. Presence, absence, and unreported presence/absence of each of the 18 features was rated for each task respectively as “overlap”, “contrary”, and “unspecified”. In conjunction, instructions/environmental conditions, signal definitions, signal rates, and summaries of the experimental vigilance tasks were extracted.ResultsA majority of driving vigilance tasks was performed in simulators (69%) compared to on-road (28%) and watching videos (3%) along with large differences in task conditions. Participants had to maintain fixed speed/lane positions in the simulators in higher proportion (74%) than on the road (36%) where they had only to drive “normally” and/or by loose conventions like “according to the law” more often (55% versus 15%). Additionally, presence of other traffic was found more often on-road (91%) than in simulators (48%). A specification of signals to detect and react to was found present within/for driving less often (59%) than alongside/in conjunction with driving (100%). Likewise, rates of signals (i.e., frequency of signal occurrence) were reported more often for non-driving vigilance tasks (80%) than in driving vigilance tasks (21%). For driving vigilance tasks, the highest overlap was 12 of the 18 features present (67%). On average, results showed relatively low levels of classic feature overlap (36%) with high rates of unspecified feature presence (46%) for driving vigilance tasks compared to non-driving vigilance tasks with higher classic feature overlap (64%) and fewer features unspecified (13%).Conclusion and applicationThere is little overlap between the well-known and often cited vigilance decrement phenomenon and published experimental tasks of driving vigilance. Major differences were also found in the instructions/environmental conditions of simulator versus on-road experimental driving vigilance tasks. What driving vigilance practically is in the real-world thus remains a promising area for future research. We recommend that researchers apply approaches which account for more real-world driving features to better expose and address uncertainty regarding driving and vigilance.