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Psychonomic Bulletin & Review Oct 2023Attentional control balances the competing drives of performance maximization and effort minimization. One way the attention system minimizes effort is through a bias to...
Attentional control balances the competing drives of performance maximization and effort minimization. One way the attention system minimizes effort is through a bias to persist in the use of attentional control strategies that have been useful in the past. In the present study, we asked whether such selection history can result in the persistence of an attentional control strategy that is counterproductive, effectively competing with a more optimal strategy. Participants first completed a training in which one color target was encountered more frequently than another, and then completed a test phase in which they could search for one of two targets on any given trial, one of which would be more optimal to search for given the distribution of color stimuli. An attentional bias for the more frequent target color was observed in the training phase and the choice of which target to report was robustly optimal in the test phase, reflecting performance maximization. Importantly, participants also exhibited a tendency to report the target rendered in the previously more frequent target color in the test phase, even when the distribution of non-target colors made it suboptimal to do so. Our findings shed light on the fundamental question of why attentional control is sometimes suboptimal, demonstrating a role for selection history in the perseveration of previously employed attentional strategies even when such strategies produce suboptimal performance.
Topics: Humans; Attention; Attentional Bias; Reaction Time; Color Perception
PubMed: 37038029
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-023-02285-3 -
Annals of the New York Academy of... 2008Biased competition models of selective attention suggest that attentional competition is influenced both by bottom-up sensory mechanisms sensitive to stimulus salience... (Review)
Review
Biased competition models of selective attention suggest that attentional competition is influenced both by bottom-up sensory mechanisms sensitive to stimulus salience and top-down control mechanisms that support the processing of task-relevant stimuli. This provides a framework for investigating the neural mechanisms underlying selective attention to threat. Both subcortical regions implicated in threat detection--specifically the amygdala--and prefrontal cortical regions implicated in top-down attentional control are activated in response to task-irrelevant threat stimuli. A number of questions including the automaticity of the amygdala response to threat distractors, the modulation by anxiety of the amygdala and prefrontal response to these stimuli, and the impact of genetic and environmental factors upon this circuitry are addressed. The empirical literature is considered in the context of theoretical accounts of the neural substrate of selective attention and conscious awareness. It is suggested that the neural activity provoked by a given visual stimulus is influenced by factors impacting upon the strength of the bottom-up trace (e.g., presentation time, backward masking), stimulus salience (including threat relatedness), competition with other visual stimuli for perceptual processing resources, and the augmentation of the stimulus trace by allocation of top-down attentional resources. Individual differences in trait and state anxiety, and in genetic makeup, are thought to modulate the influence of stimulus valence and top-down attention through their impact upon amygdala and prefrontal function.
Topics: Attention; Cognition; Environment; Fear; Humans; Nervous System Physiological Phenomena; Subliminal Stimulation
PubMed: 18591476
DOI: 10.1196/annals.1417.016 -
Memory (Hove, England) Apr 2023The (ABE) is an improvement of memory under divided attention conditions in which stimulus encoding is enhanced when a target is detected in a simultaneous...
The (ABE) is an improvement of memory under divided attention conditions in which stimulus encoding is enhanced when a target is detected in a simultaneous target-monitoring distracting task. Here we asked whether memory is similarly improved when the target-monitoring task occurs at the time of retrieval. In four experiments, participants encoded words under full attention then completed a recognition test under either divided attention, during which participants made recognition judgments while performing the target-monitoring task, or full attention, in which the target-monitoring task was not performed. Relative to distractor rejection, target detection increased hits and false alarms under divided attention with no net effect on discrimination. Targets and distractors had no effect on recognition under full attention. The target-related increase in hits and false alarms occurred regardless of whether the target-monitoring material matched or mismatched the test material and regardless of the target-to-distractor ratio and the target response. A change in bias accounts for the phenomenon, in which participants adopt a more lenient criterion for target-paired words than for distractor-paired words. The same divided attention manipulation that enhances memory at encoding does not similarly enhance memory at retrieval. Theoretical explanations are discussed.
Topics: Humans; Memory; Attention; Recognition, Psychology
PubMed: 36866615
DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2023.2184458 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Aug 2001Electrophysiological and hemodynamical responses of the brain allow investigation of the neural origins of human attention. We review attention-related brain responses... (Review)
Review
Electrophysiological and hemodynamical responses of the brain allow investigation of the neural origins of human attention. We review attention-related brain responses from auditory and visual tasks employing oddball and novelty paradigms. Dipole localization and intracranial recordings as well as functional magnetic resonance imaging reveal multiple areas involved in generating and modulating attentional brain responses. In addition, the influence of brain lesions of circumscribed areas of the human cortex onto attentional mechanisms are reviewed. While it is obvious that damaged brain tissue no longer functions properly, it has also been shown that functions of non-lesioned brain areas are impaired due to loss of modulatory influence of the lesioned area. Both early (P1 and N1) and late (P3) event-related potentials are modulated by excitatatory and inhibitory mechanisms. Oscillatory EEG-correlates of attention in the alpha and gamma frequency range also show attentional modulation.
Topics: Attention; Brain; Electrocardiography; Evoked Potentials; Humans
PubMed: 11595268
DOI: 10.1016/s0149-7634(01)00027-6 -
Perspectives on Psychological Science :... Nov 2022Attention represents a key element of self-control, and multiple theoretical accounts have highlighted the role played by abundant attentional capacity in effecting...
Attention represents a key element of self-control, and multiple theoretical accounts have highlighted the role played by abundant attentional capacity in effecting successful self-regulation. What, then, are the consequences of living in today's world, in which attention can become so easily divided by a multitude of stimuli? In this article, we consider the implications of divided attention for self-control and show that although the end result is typically disinhibited behavior, under specified conditions, attentional limitation, or what we term , can be associated with enhanced restraint.
Topics: Humans; Attention; Self-Control
PubMed: 35830521
DOI: 10.1177/17456916221077093 -
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience Jun 2017A growing body of evidence has demonstrated that multiple sources of salience tune attentional sets toward aspects of the environment, including affectively and... (Review)
Review
A growing body of evidence has demonstrated that multiple sources of salience tune attentional sets toward aspects of the environment, including affectively and motivationally significant categories of stimuli such as angry faces and reward-associated target locations. Recent evidence further indicates that objects that have gained personal significance through ownership can elicit similar attentional prioritization. Here we discuss current research on sources of attentional prioritization that shape our awareness of the visual world from moment to moment and the underlying neural systems and contextualize what is known about attentional prioritization of our possessions within that research. We review behavioral and neuroimaging research on the influence of self-relevance and ownership on cognition and discuss challenges to this literature stemming from different modes of conceptualizing and operationalizing the self. We argue that ownership taps into both "self-as-object," which characterizes the self as an object with a constellation of traits and attributes, and "self-as-subject," which characterizes the self as an agentic perceiver and knower. Despite an abundance of research probing neural and behavioral indices of self-as-object and its effects on attention, there exists a paucity of research on the influence of self-relevance of attention when self is operationalized from the perspective of a first-person subject. To begin to address this gap, we propose the Self as Ownership in Attentional Prioritization (SOAP) framework to explain how ownership increases salience through attention to external representations of self-identity (i.e., self as object) and attention to contextually mediated permission to act (i.e., self as subject).
Topics: Attention; Brain; Ego; Humans; Models, Theoretical
PubMed: 27897673
DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01083 -
Frontiers in Bioscience : a Journal and... Nov 2000In this chapter we review psychological and physiological experiments on selective attention to touch stimuli. We explore the role of selective attention in tactile... (Review)
Review
In this chapter we review psychological and physiological experiments on selective attention to touch stimuli. We explore the role of selective attention in tactile target detection and search, determining those tasks that benefit from attention and those which can be effectively performed pre-attentively. We also try to determine the stage at which attentional selection occurs. We review electrophysiological and human brain imaging (PET, fMRI, MEG, SEP) studies to assess how early in the somatosensory processing pathway attentional modulation occurs. There is some evidence that the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) can show attentional effects. However, a number of studies have suggested that there is a hierarchy to attentional modulation in the somatosensory system, with the greatest effects being observed in secondary and association areas.
Topics: Afferent Pathways; Animals; Attention; Behavior; Brain Mapping; Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory; Humans; Mechanoreceptors; Parietal Lobe; Physical Stimulation; Psychomotor Performance; Reaction Time; Sensory Thresholds; Somatosensory Cortex; Thalamus; Touch; Vibration
PubMed: 11056079
DOI: 10.2741/A558 -
Annals of the New York Academy of... Jul 1992In 1972 when we began to analyze the vast amount of material from the laboratories of physiological psychologists, we had only a vague conceptualization of what a model... (Review)
Review
In 1972 when we began to analyze the vast amount of material from the laboratories of physiological psychologists, we had only a vague conceptualization of what a model of attention might look like. We began where everyone else had, with the view that everything had something to do with "arousal" but with Lacey's (1967) warning in mind that all of the dependent variables might not actually be measuring aspects of the same process. With this warning in mind, we were forced by the data to organize them into a three-systems mode. Since the first publication of this model in 1975, we have found increasing amounts of evidence to support and extend it. This evidence is briefly reviewed in the present paper in terms of the techniques employed in various types of investigation. Further, the current review of data has made it possible to specify the para-attentional substrate (the extrinsic lemniscal primary projection systems) upon which the three systems described in the earlier model operate. The earlier model was based on psychophysiological, neurobehavioral and neurochemical analyses while the current specification results from the results of recordings of event-related brain electrical responses. The conclusions derived from these results can be summarized as follows: First. It has become possible to distinguish controlled attention from the para-attentional pre- and post-attentive automatic processes upon which controls operate. Second. The pre- and post-attentive processes appear to be coordinate with activity in the extrinsic lemniscal primary sensory projection systems. Processing in these systems is reflected in the early components of event-related brain electrical potentials. These extrinsic systems are, however, not just throughputs for further processing. Rather, they are sensitive to the history of reinforcement which the subject has experienced. The concept of a limited channel capacity must, therefore, be modified to encompass this ability of organisms to improve, through practice, their competence to process a great deal of information in parallel. Competence, not capacity, limits central processing span. Third. A set of intrinsic extralemniscal processing systems has been identified to operate via a tecto-tegmental pathway to the reticular nucleus of the thalamus. The later components (N2P3, etc.) of event-related potentials have been shown to reflect processing in these systems and those that control them. Activity in these systems has been related to targeted conscious awareness.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Topics: Amygdala; Arousal; Attention; Basal Ganglia; Brain; Electrophysiology; Evoked Potentials; Habituation, Psychophysiologic; Humans; Models, Neurological
PubMed: 1497264
DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1992.tb22839.x -
Neuropsychologia Nov 2016In humans and non-human primates, the parietal lobe plays a key role in spatial attention - the ability to extract information from regions of space. This role is... (Review)
Review
In humans and non-human primates, the parietal lobe plays a key role in spatial attention - the ability to extract information from regions of space. This role is thought to be mediated by "priority" maps that highlight attention-worthy locations, and provide top-down feedback for motor orienting and attentional allocation. Traditionally, priority signals within the parietal cortex have been characterized as being purely spatial, i.e., encoding the desired locus of gaze or attention regardless of the context in which the brain generates that selection. Here, we highlight evidence from human behavior and neuroimaging as well as monkey physiology, to argue that non-spatial responses are critical to the establishment of priority maps in parietal cortex. This review offers an integrative view of the role that parietal cortex plays in attentional selection, providing evidence that priority maps reflect spatial and non-spatial priorities that ultimately act on sensory information in a spatial way.
Topics: Animals; Attention; Humans; Parietal Lobe; Space Perception
PubMed: 27256592
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.05.021 -
The Journal of Neuroscience : the... May 2019Recent psychophysical studies have demonstrated that periodic attention in the 4-8 Hz range facilitates performance on visual detection. The present study examined the...
Recent psychophysical studies have demonstrated that periodic attention in the 4-8 Hz range facilitates performance on visual detection. The present study examined the periodicity of feature binding, another major function of attention, in human observers (3 females and 5 males for behavior, with 7 males added for the EEG experiment). In a psychophysical task, observers reported a synchronous pair of brightness (light/dark) and orientation (clockwise/counterclockwise) patterns from two combined brightness-orientation pairs presented in rapid succession. We found that temporal binding performance exhibits periodic oscillations at ∼8 Hz as a function of stimulus onset delay from a self-initiated button press in conditions where brightness-orientation pairs were spatially separated. However, as one would expect from previous studies on pre-attentive binding, significant oscillations were not apparent in conditions where brightness-orientation pairs were spatially superimposed. EEG results, while fully compatible with behavioral oscillations, also revealed a significant dependence of binding performance across trials on prestimulus neural oscillatory phases within the corresponding band. The peak frequency of this dependence was found to be correlated with intertrial phase coherence (ITPC) around the timing of button press in parietal sensors. Moreover, the peak frequency of the ITPC was found to predict behavioral frequency in individual observers. Together, these results suggest that attention operates periodically (at ∼8 Hz) on the perceptual binding of multimodal visual information and is mediated by neural oscillations phase-locked to voluntary action. Recent studies in neuroscience suggest that the brain's attention network operates rhythmically at 4-8 Hz. The present behavioral task revealed that attentional binding of visual features is performed periodically at ∼8 Hz, and EEG analysis showed a dependence of binding performance on prestimulus neural oscillatory phase. Furthermore, this association between perceptual and neural oscillations is triggered by voluntary action. Periodic processes driven by attention appear to contribute not only to sensory processing but also to the temporal binding of diverse information into a conscious event synchronized with action.
Topics: Adult; Attention; Brain; Electroencephalography; Female; Humans; Male; Photic Stimulation; Visual Perception
PubMed: 30886011
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2494-18.2019