Aging-related perceptual-grouping and attention-switching deficits in frequency discrimination amid task-irrelevant stimulus variability

2020 ◽  
Vol 148 (4) ◽  
pp. 2712-2712
Author(s):  
Blas Espinoza-Varas
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Grouping ◽  
Irrelevant Stimulus ◽  
Frequency Discrimination ◽  
Attention Switching ◽  
Stimulus Variability ◽  
Task Irrelevant

scholarly journals Perceptual grouping constrains inhibition in time-based visual selection

2019 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 500-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zorana Zupan ◽  
Derrick G. Watson
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Grouping ◽  
Visual Selection ◽  
Selection Task ◽  
Selection Experiment ◽  
Preview Benefit ◽  
Capacity Limits ◽  
Complex Stimuli ◽  
Selective Processing ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Task Irrelevant

AbstractIn time-based visual selection, task-irrelevant, old stimuli can be inhibited in order to allow the selective processing of new stimuli that appear at a later point in time (the preview benefit; Watson & Humphreys, 1997). The current study investigated if illusory and non-illusory perceptual groups influence the ability to inhibit old and prioritize new stimuli in time-based visual selection. Experiment 1 showed that with Kanizsa-type illusory stimuli, a preview benefit occurred only when displays contained a small number of items. Experiment 2 demonstrated that a set of Kanizsa-type illusory stimuli could be selectively searched amongst a set of non-illusory distractors with no additional preview benefit obtained by separating the two sets of stimuli in time. Experiment 3 showed that, similarly to Experiment 1, non-illusory perceptual groups also produced a preview benefit only for a small number of number of distractors. Experiment 4 demonstrated that local changes to perceptually grouped old items eliminated the preview benefit. The results indicate that the preview benefit is reduced in capacity when applied to complex stimuli that require perceptual grouping, regardless of whether the grouped elements elicit illusory contours. Further, inhibition is applied at the level of grouped objects, rather than to the individual elements making up those groups. The findings are discussed in terms of capacity limits in the inhibition of old distractor stimuli when they consist of perceptual groups, the attentional requirements of forming perceptual groups and the mechanisms and efficiency of time-based visual selection.

scholarly journals Auditory frequency discrimination learning is affected by stimulus variability

2005 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 691-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sygal Amitay ◽  
David J. C. Hawkey ◽  
David R. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Discrimination Learning ◽  
Frequency Discrimination ◽  
Stimulus Variability

scholarly journals Age-related differences in processing task-irrelevant stimulus properties: a single-trial ERP study

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 204-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Wieczorek ◽  
C. Gaspar ◽  
C. Pernet ◽  
G. Rousselet
Keyword(s):  
Irrelevant Stimulus ◽  
Single Trial ◽  
Stimulus Properties ◽  
Processing Task ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Task Irrelevant

scholarly journals Localizing the Neural Substrate of Reflexive Covert Orienting

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie Higenell ◽  
Brian J. White ◽  
Joshua R. Hwang ◽  
Douglas P. Munoz
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Irrelevant Stimulus ◽  
Attention Capture ◽  
Visual Orientation ◽  
Gaze Behavior ◽  
Processing Stage ◽  
Visual Events ◽  
Neural Substrate ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Subsequent Target

The capture of covert spatial attention by salient visual events influences subsequent gaze behavior. A task irrelevant stimulus (cue) can reduce (Attention capture) or prolong (Inhi-bition of return) saccade reaction time to a subsequent target stimulus depending on the cue-target delay. Here we investigated the mechanisms that underlie the sensory-based account of AC/IOR by manipulating the visual processing stage where the cue and target interact. In Experiment 1, liquid crystal shutter goggles were used to test whether AC/IOR occur at a monocular versus binocular processing stage (before versus after signals from both eyes converge). In Experiment 2, we tested whether visual orientation selective mechanisms are critical for AC/IOR by using oriented “Gabor” stimuli. We found that the magnitude of AC and IOR was not different between monocular and interocular viewing conditions, or between iso- and ortho-oriented cue-target interactions. The results suggest that the visual mechanisms that contribute to AC/IOR arise at an orientation-independent binocular processing stage.

The effect of task-irrelevant stimulus ‘graspability’ on reaching actions

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Samuel Couth ◽  
Ellen Poliakoff ◽  
Emma Gowen
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Times ◽  
Irrelevant Stimulus ◽  
Inhibitory Effect ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Reaching Movement ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Onset Delay ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
And Control ◽  
Previous Reaction

Reaching and grasping requires integration of visual, proprioceptive and somatosensory inputs. Previous research has shown that manipulating the ‘graspabilty’ of a visual stimulus influences reaction times to that stimulus (e.g., Tucker and Ellis, 1998). Here we explored whether this same effect can be extended to the planning and online control of arm movements. Participants made a mimed reaching movement with their left or right hand depending on the colour of images of affordance (door handles) and control stimuli (a row of dots of similar size and orientation as the door handle). Stimulus onset was manipulated by changing when the grey stimulus changed colour. Stimuli either pointed towards (compatible) or pointed away from (incompatible) the responding hand. Spatially compatible affordance stimuli facilitated reach onset compared to other stimuli and compatibility combinations, replicating previous reaction time studies. This can be attributed to a priming of the motor system by spatially compatible affording items. Results also indicated a larger outwards deviation of reach trajectory for spatially incompatible control stimuli compared to spatially compatible control stimuli, which waned with stimulus onset delay. This reveals an immediate inhibitory effect on reach trajectory, such that outwards movement is over-compensated to negate this incompatible orientation. Overall, we observed that the effect of visual spatial compatibility on reach kinematics differs with the action relevance of the stimulus. We are currently exploring how this multisensory visuomotor effect changes with age.

Attention, Memory, and Auditory Processing in 10- to 15-Year-Old Children With Listening Difficulties

2014 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 2308-2321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mridula Sharma ◽  
Imran Dhamani ◽  
Johahn Leung ◽  
Simon Carlile
Keyword(s):  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Frequency Discrimination ◽  
Stream Segregation ◽  
Frequency Resolution ◽  
Attention And Memory ◽  
Attention Switching ◽  
Attention Memory ◽  
Structure Perception

PurposeThe aim of this study was to examine attention, memory, and auditory processing in children with reported listening difficulty in noise (LDN) despite having clinically normal hearing.MethodTwenty-one children with LDN and 15 children with no listening concerns (controls) participated. The clinically normed auditory processing tests included the Frequency/Pitch Pattern Test (FPT; Musiek, 2002), the Dichotic Digits Test (Musiek, 1983), the Listening in Spatialized Noise—Sentences (LiSN–S) test (Dillon, Cameron, Glyde, Wilson, & Tomlin, 2012), gap detection in noise (Baker, Jayewardene, Sayle, & Saeed, 2008), and masking level difference (MLD; Wilson, Moncrieff, Townsend, & Pillion, 2003). Also included were research-based psychoacoustic tasks, such as auditory stream segregation, localization, sinusoidal amplitude modulation (SAM), and fine structure perception. All were also evaluated on attention and memory test batteries.ResultsThe LDN group was significantly slower switching their auditory attention and had poorer inhibitory control. Additionally, the group mean results showed significantly poorer performance on FPT, MLD, 4-Hz SAM, and memory tests. Close inspection of the individual data revealed that only 5 participants (out of 21) in the LDN group showed significantly poor performance on FPT compared with clinical norms. Further testing revealed the frequency discrimination of these 5 children to be significantly impaired.ConclusionThus, the LDN group showed deficits in attention switching and inhibitory control, whereas only a subset of these participants demonstrated an additional frequency resolution deficit.

scholarly journals Context-specific proportion congruent effects: Compound-cue contingency learning in disguise

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 1119-1130 ◽  
Author(s):  
James R Schmidt ◽  
Céline Lemercier
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Control ◽  
Congruency Effect ◽  
Irrelevant Stimulus ◽  
Response Speed ◽  
Contingency Learning ◽  
Conflict Monitoring ◽  
Stroop Paradigm ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Compound Cue

Conflict between task-relevant and task-irrelevant stimulus information leads to impairment in response speed and accuracy. For instance, in the colour-word Stroop paradigm, participants respond slower and less accurately to the print colour of incongruent colour words (e.g., “red” printed in green) than to congruent colour words (e.g., “green” in green). Importantly, this congruency effect is diminished when the trials in an experiment are mostly incongruent, relative to mostly congruent, termed a proportion congruent effect. When distracting stimuli are mostly congruent in one context (e.g., location or font) but mostly incongruent in another context (e.g., another location or font), the congruency effect is still diminished in the mostly incongruent context, termed a context-specific proportion congruent (CSPC) effect. Both the standard proportion congruent and CSPC effects are typically interpreted in terms of conflict-driven attentional control, frequently termed conflict adaptation or conflict monitoring. However, in two experiments, we investigated contingency learning confounds in context-specific proportion congruent effects. In particular, two variants of a dissociation procedure are presented with the font variant of the CSPC procedure. In both, robust contingency learning effects were observed. No evidence for context-specific control was observed. In fact, results trended in the wrong direction. In all, the results suggest that CSPC effects may not be a useful way of studying attentional control.

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