Fluctuations in pre-trial attentional state and their influence on goal neglect

Fluctuations in attentional state and their relation to goal neglect were examined in the current study. Participants performed a variant of the Stroop task in which attentional state ratings were given prior to each trial. It was found that pre-trial attentional state ratings predicted subsequent trial performance, such that when participants rated their current attentional state as highly focused on the current task, performance tended to be high compared to when participants reported their current attentional state as being unfocused on the current task. This effect was larger for incongruent than congruent trials leading to differences in the magnitude of the Stroop effect as a function of pre-trial attentional state. Furthermore, variability in attentional state was correlated with overall levels of performance, and when attentional state was covaried out, the Stroop effect was greatly reduced. These results suggest a link between fluctuations in pre-trial attentional state and goal neglect.     

Implicit learning, thought-focused attention and obsessive-compulsive disorder: a replication and extension

Although significant empirical support exists for both cognitive and neurobiological models of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), there have been few efforts to integrate findings. In this investigation, we attempted to link models by examining relationships between performance on information processing tasks posited to be markers of OCD-related neuropathology and a self-report measure of excessive thought-focused attention (cognitive self-consciousness; CSC). Congruent with predictions and prior research, OCD patients' performance was impaired in comparison to an anxious control group on the Serial Reaction Time (SRT) Task, a measure of implicit procedural learning. Following completion of the SRT, participants' awareness of the embedded stimulus pattern was assessed. As predicted, participants with OCD demonstrated superior performance on this task. Scoring on a measure of CSC correlated with performance on both tasks, although the amount of variance accounted for was modest. Evaluation of OCD symptom subgroups revealed greater procedural learning impairment in a hoarding subgroup. Implications for theory and treatment are discussed.     

To point a finger: attentional and motor consequences of observing pointing movements

Recent studies showed that action observation activates neural circuits used in performing the same action and facilitates execution of a similar motor program. This system for direct mapping of observed actions onto observer’s own motor representation is considered critical for human imitation capabilities. The present study shows that observing a pointing action activates a representation of that action in anatomical space, irrespectively of whether the action is shown in allocentric or egocentric perspective. This finding is at odds with the studies on imitation which showed that humans tend to imitate in a spatially compatible (specular) way, as if looking in a mirror. Our results suggest that shared representations for actions are organized in the same spatial coordinates; however, a transformation of this representation might be required for imitation tasks in order to accommodate the goals of imitative action.     

The corrective effects of warning on false memories in the DRM paradigm are limited to full attention conditions

Effects of attention control and forewarning on the activation and monitoring of experimentally induced false memories in the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm were investigated in a young adult sample (N=77). We found that reducing the degree of attention during encoding led to a decrease in veridical recall and an increase in non-presented critical lure intrusions. This effect could not be counteracted by a forewarning instruction. However, these findings did not emerge in a (retrieval supportive) recognition task. It seems that divided attention increases false recall when attention control and forewarning have to compete for limited cognitive resources in a generative free recall as opposed to a retrieval supportive recognition task. Forewarning instructions do not always protect young adults against experimentally induced false memories.     

Attentional orienting across the sensory modalities

This event-related potential study investigated (i) to what extent incongruence between attention-directing cue and cued target modality affects attentional control processes that bias the system in advance to favor a particular stimulus modality and (ii) to what extent top-down attentional control mechanisms are generalized for the type of information that is to be attended. To this end, both visual and auditory word cues were used to instruct participants to direct attention to a specific visual (color) or auditory (pitch) stimulus feature of a forthcoming multisensory target stimulus. Effects of cue congruency were observed within 200 ms post-cue over frontal scalp regions and related to processes involved in shifting attention from the cue modality to the modality of the task-relevant target feature. Both directing visual attention and directing auditory attention were associated with dorsal posterior positivity, followed by sustained fronto-central negativity. However, this fronto-central negativity appeared to have an earlier onset and was more pronounced when the visual modality was cued. Together the present results suggest that the mechanisms involved in deploying attention are to some extent determined by the modality (visual, auditory) in which attention operates, and in addition, that some of these mechanisms can also be affected by cue congruency.     

Two-month-olds' attention and affective response to maternal still face: a comparison between term and preterm infants in Taiwan

Maternal still face is a robust experimental procedure designed to examine infants’ sensitivity to social contingency and reactivity to its violation. To extend earlier research on the still-face effect on term infants in Western cultures, the present study compared Taiwanese term and preterm infants’ attention and affective response to and recovery from a modified maternal still-face procedure that used an additional still-face reengagement sequence at 2 months of age (corrected age for preterm infants). Infants’ gaze and facial affect were coded from videos. Results showed that preterm infants were as sensitive as term infants to the interruption to social contingency. Both groups of infants reacted with decreased gaze and positive affect across episodes, together with a decreased latency to gaze aversion and an increased latency to positive affect. Both term and preterm infants also demonstrated a W-shaped pattern of decline-followed-by-recovery in their latency to negative affect. However, compared to term infants, preterm infants became distressed faster and stayed in a negative affective state longer after the first exposure to maternal still face. Effects of prematurity on infant attention and affect regulation were discussed. Implications of preterm infants’ heightened affective negativity to mild stress for intervention studies were also addressed.     

Attentional focus moderates habituation–language relationships: slow habituation may be a good thing

An interesting paradox in the developmental literature has emerged in which fast‐habituating babies tend to be temperamentally difficult and fast language learners, even though temperamentally difficult babies tend to be slow language learners. The purpose of the present investigation was to examine whether the paradoxical relationships among habituation, temperamental difficulty, and language acquisition could be mediated partly or wholly by infant attentional focus, because the latter also tends to correlate with temperamental difficulty and vocabulary size. Forty mother–infant dyads were followed from child age 5–20‐months. Results replicated those of Tamis‐LeMonda and Bornstein (Child Develop 1989, 60, 738–751): measures of visual habituation at 5 months were related to 13‐month vocabulary. However, relationships between 5‐month habituation and 20‐month vocabulary were moderated by temperamental attentional focus. For children low in attentional focus, 5‐month habituation was related negatively to 20‐month productive vocabulary; whereas for children high in attentional focus, early habituation was positively related to later vocabulary. Results are consistent with a model of habituation in which volitional attentional focus overrides basic attentional mechanisms that occur during habituation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

共享心智模型影响团队绩效的权变模型

共享心智模型指团队成员关于团队关键要素的共同的知识结构, 诸多研究表明其能有效提高团队运作效能。本研究从权变的角度入手, 以负责通讯网络监控与维护的106个高技术团队为分析对象, 探讨团队的共享心智模型与团队绩效的关系, 并揭示团队互依性作为权变因素对共享心智模型与团队绩效关系的调节效应。层次回归分析结果表明, 共享心智模型能显著预测团队绩效, 而团队互依性则负向调节两者之间的关系, 即在互依性程度较低的团队里, 共享心智模型才显著提高团队绩效。作者从共享心智模型的测量和权变因素的作用两个角度展开讨论, 并基于此提出了后续的研究方向。     

感数的认知机制：从注意到工作记忆

感数(subitizing)是对小数精确而迅速的知觉, 它反映了有机体的一种基本数量表征能力。研究者曾一度认为感数是一个前注意的并行加工过程, 近年来的一些研究发现感数是需要注意资源的, 但是注意资源假设不能有效解释感数与计数的分离。为解决这一困惑, 本文综述了感数和视空间工作记忆的相似性, 在此基础上提出一种新的观点来解释感数的认知机制：视空间工作记忆容量决定了个体一次能精确知觉到的客体的数量, 而注意决定了哪些信息进入视空间工作记忆。