scholarly journals Neural mechanisms underlying visual attention to health warnings on branded and plain cigarette packs

Addiction ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 112 (4) ◽  
pp. 662-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia M. Maynard ◽  
Jonathan C. W. Brooks ◽  
Marcus R. Munafò ◽  
Ute Leonards
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Health Warnings ◽  
Cigarette Packs

scholarly journals Avoidance of tobacco health warnings? An eye-tracking approach

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Sillero-Rejon ◽  
Ute Leonards ◽  
Marcus Robert Munafo ◽  
Craig Hedge ◽  
Janet Hoek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Smoking Status ◽  
Relative Number ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Health Warnings ◽  
Cognitive Awareness ◽  
University Of Bristol ◽  
Cigarette Packs

Aims: Across three eye-tracking studies, we examined how the location, framing, immediacy, and severity of health warnings on branded cigarette packs affected visual attention and self-reported avoidance of and reactance to warnings. Design: Study 1: smoking status × warning immediacy (short-term vs. long-term) × warning location (top of back vs. bottom of pack). Study 2: smoking status × warning framing (gain-framed vs. loss-framed) × warning format (text-only vs. pictorial). Study 3: smoking status × warning severity (highly-severe vs. moderately-severe). Setting: University of Bristol, UK, eye-tracking laboratory. Participants Study 1: non-smokers (n=25), weekly smokers (n=25), and daily smokers (n=25). Study 2: non-smokers (n=37), smokers contemplating quitting (n=37) and smokers not contemplating quitting (n=43). Study 3: non-smokers (n=27), weekly smokers (n=26) and daily smokers (n=26). Measurements: For all studies: relative number of fixations to the warning vs. the brand, self-reported avoidance of and reactance to warnings and for Study 3: effect of warning on quitting motivation. Findings: Study 1: Greater self-reported avoidance (p<0.001) and greater visual attention (p=0.03) to long-term warnings, but no difference for reactance (p=0.12). Increased visual attention to warnings on the upper- versus lower-half of the pack (p=0.02). Study 2: Higher self-reported avoidance of (p<0.001) and reactance to (p<0.001) loss-framed warnings but little evidence of a difference for visual attention (p=0.30). Greater visual attention, avoidance and reactance to pictorial versus text-only warnings (all ps>0.001). Study 3: Greater self-reported avoidance of (p<0.001) and reactance (p=0.003) to highly-severe warnings but no clear difference in visual attention (p=0.24). Conclusions: Subjective (self-report) and objective (eye-tracking) measures of warning avoidance produced different outcomes, suggesting these capture different constructs. Visual avoidance of warnings indicates low-level disengagement with warnings, while self-reported avoidance reflects higher-level cognitive awareness and engagement with warnings. We suggest that loss-framed, long-term, highly-severe images are likely to be most effective in communicating harm.

Plain packaging increases visual attention to health warnings on cigarette packs in non-smokers and weekly smokers but not daily smokers

Addiction ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 106 (8) ◽  
pp. 1505-1510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus R. Munafò ◽  
Nicole Roberts ◽  
Linda Bauld ◽  
Ute Leonards
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Health Warnings ◽  
Plain Packaging ◽  
Cigarette Packs

Long-term impact of plain packaging of cigarettes with larger graphic health warnings: findings from cross-sectional surveys of Australian adolescents between 2011 and 2017

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (e1) ◽  
pp. e77-e84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria M White ◽  
Nicola Guerin ◽  
Tahlia Williams ◽  
Melanie A Wakefield
Keyword(s):  
Smoking Prevalence ◽  
Health Warnings ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Plain Packaging ◽  
School Based ◽  
Negative Perceptions ◽  
Long Term Impact ◽  
Cigarette Packs ◽  
Positive Character

ObjectiveTo assess the long-term impact of plain packaging (PP) of cigarettes with larger graphic health warnings (HW) introduced in December 2012 on adolescents’ relevant tobacco-related perceptions.MethodsCross-sectional school-based surveys of 12 to 17 year olds in 2011 (n=4413), 2013 (n=4423), 2014 (n=4576) and 2017 (n=4266). Students rated the character of four popular cigarette brands, indicated their agreement regarding brand differences in smoking ease, quitting, addictiveness, harmfulness and pack attractiveness and positive/negative perceptions of pack image. The frequency of students reading, attending to, thinking and talking about HW was assessed. Responses of students seeing cigarette packs in the previous 6 months (2011: 63%; 2013: 67%, 2014: 56%, 2017: 56%) were examined.ResultsSmoking prevalence declined from 2011 to 2017. Among students who had recently seen packs, cigarette packs were rated less positively and more negatively in 2017 than in 2011 (p<0.001) with ratings similar between 2013 and 2017. Positive character ratings for each brand reduced between 2011 and 2013 (ps<0.05) with further reductions between 2013 and 2017 (ps<0.05). Fewer students agreed, and more were uncertain, that brands differed in their smoking ease, addictiveness, harmfulness and pack attractiveness in 2017 than 2011. The frequency of students reading, attending, talking or thinking about HW did not change between 2011 and 2017.ConclusionsPP’s initial impact in reducing adolescent’s positive perceptions of cigarette packs and brand differences continued in the following years with tobacco packaging less appealing to young people in 2017 than 2011 and students more uncertain about brand differences.

scholarly journals Neural mechanisms of infant learning: differences in frontal theta activity during object exploration modulate subsequent object recognition

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 20150041 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarina Begus ◽  
Victoria Southgate ◽  
Teodora Gliga
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Theta Activity ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Motivation To Learn ◽  
Theta Band ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Learning Differences ◽  
Object Exploration ◽  
Theta Frequency ◽  
Infant Learning

Investigating learning mechanisms in infancy relies largely on behavioural measures like visual attention, which often fail to predict whether stimuli would be encoded successfully. This study explored EEG activity in the theta frequency band, previously shown to predict successful learning in adults, to directly study infants' cognitive engagement, beyond visual attention. We tested 11-month-old infants ( N = 23) and demonstrated that differences in frontal theta-band oscillations, recorded during infants' object exploration, predicted differential subsequent recognition of these objects in a preferential-looking test. Given that theta activity is modulated by motivation to learn in adults, these findings set the ground for future investigation into the drivers of infant learning.

scholarly journals A conceptual frame with two neural mechanisms to model selective visual attention processes

2008 ◽  
Vol 71 (4-6) ◽  
pp. 704-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Mira ◽  
Ana E. Delgado ◽  
María T. López ◽  
Antonio Fernández-Caballero ◽  
Miguel A. Fernández
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Selective Visual Attention ◽  
Conceptual Frame

scholarly journals Public health benefits from pictorial health warnings on US cigarette packs: a SimSmoke simulation

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 649-655 ◽  
Author(s):  
David T Levy ◽  
Darren Mays ◽  
Zhe Yuan ◽  
David Hammond ◽  
James F Thrasher
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Benefits ◽  
Health Warnings ◽  
Cigarette Packs

Neural Mechanisms of Visual Attention: How Top-Down Feedback Highlights Relevant Locations

Science ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 316 (5831) ◽  
pp. 1612-1615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. B. Saalmann ◽  
I. N. Pigarev ◽  
T. R. Vidyasagar
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Top Down

scholarly journals Distinct neural mechanisms meet challenges in dynamic visual attention due to either load or object spacing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Mäki-Marttunen ◽  
T. Hagen ◽  
B. Laeng ◽  
T. Espeseth
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Spatial Proximity ◽  
Physiological Mechanisms ◽  
Spatial Tasks ◽  
Spatial Interference ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Separate Cohort

AbstractWhen solving dynamic visuo-spatial tasks, the brain copes with perceptual and cognitive processing challenges. In the multiple-object tracking (MOT) task, the number of objects to be tracked (i.e. load) imposes attentional demands, but so does spatial interference from irrelevant objects (i.e. crowding). Presently, it is not clear whether load and crowding activate separate cognitive and physiological mechanisms. Such knowledge would be important to understand the neurophysiology of visual attention. Furthermore, it would help resolve conflicting views between theories of visual cognition, particularly concerning sources of capacity limitations. To address this problem, we varied the degree of processing challenge in the MOT task in two ways: First, the number of objects to track, and second, the spatial proximity between targets and distractors. We first measured task-induced pupil dilations and saccades during MOT. In a separate cohort we measured fMRI brain activity during MOT. The behavioral results in both cohorts revealed that increased load and crowding led to reduced accuracy in an additive manner. Load was associated with pupil dilations, whereas crowding was not. Activity in dorsal attentional areas and frequency of saccades were proportionally larger both with higher levels of load and crowding. Higher crowding recruited additionally ventral attentional areas that may reflect orienting mechanisms. The activity in the brainstem nuclei ventral tegmental area/substantia nigra and locus coeruleus showed clearly dissociated patterns. Our results constitute convergent evidence from independent samples that processing challenges due to load and object spacing may rely on different mechanisms.

scholarly journals Understanding visual attention with RAGNAROC: A Reflexive Attention Gradient through Neural AttRactOr Competition

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brad Wyble ◽  
Chloe Callahan-Flintoft ◽  
Hui Chen ◽  
Toma Marinov ◽  
Aakash Sarkar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Lower Priority ◽  
Reflexive Attention ◽  
Visual Hierarchy ◽  
New Information ◽  
Suppression Effects

AbstractA quintessential challenge for any perceptual system is the need to focus on task-relevant information without being blindsided by unexpected, yet important information. The human visual system incorporates several solutions to this challenge, one of which is a reflexive covert attention system that is rapidly responsive to both the physical salience and the task-relevance of new information. This paper presents a model that simulates behavioral and neural correlates of reflexive attention as the product of brief neural attractor states that are formed across the visual hierarchy when attention is engaged. Such attractors emerge from an attentional gradient distributed over a population of topographically organized neurons and serve to focus processing at one or more locations in the visual field, while inhibiting the processing of lower priority information. The model moves towards a resolution of key debates about the nature of reflexive attention, such as whether it is parallel or serial, and whether suppression effects are distributed in a spatial surround, or selectively at the location of distractors. Most importantly, the model develops a framework for understanding the neural mechanisms of visual attention as a spatiotopic decision process within a hierarchy and links them to observable correlates such as accuracy, reaction time, and the N2pc and PD components of the EEG. This last contribution is the most crucial for repairing the disconnect that exists between our understanding of behavioral and neural correlates of attention.

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