scholarly journals Perceptual load modulates the processing of distractors presented at task-irrelevant locations during the attentional blink

2010 ◽  
Vol 72 (8) ◽  
pp. 2106-2114 ◽  
Author(s):  
James C. Elliott ◽  
Barry Giesbrecht
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Blink ◽  
Perceptual Load ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Visual disgust-elicitors produce an attentional blink independent of contextual and trait-level pathogen avoidance

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Perone ◽  
David Vaughn Becker ◽  
Joshua M. Tybur
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Attentional Blink ◽  
Attentional Bias ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Attentional Biases ◽  
Attentional Processing ◽  
Trait Level ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Pathogen Avoidance

Multiple studies report that disgust-eliciting stimuli are perceived as salient and subsequently capture selective attention. In the current study, we aimed to better understand the nature of temporal attentional biases toward disgust-eliciting stimuli and to investigate the extent to which these biases are sensitive to contextual and trait-level pathogen avoidance motives. Participants (N=116) performed in an Emotional Attentional Blink (EAB) task in which task-irrelevant disgust-eliciting, fear-eliciting, or neutral images preceded a target by 200, 500, or 800 milliseconds (i.e., lag two, five and eight respectively). They did so twice - once while not exposed to an odor, and once while exposed to either an odor that elicited disgust or an odor that did not - and completed a measure of disgust sensitivity. Results indicate that disgust-eliciting visual stimuli produced a greater attentional blink than neutral visual stimuli at lag two and a greater attentional blink than fear-eliciting visual stimuli at both lag two and at lag five. Neither the odor manipulations nor individual differences measures moderated this effect. We propose that visual attention is engaged for a longer period of time following disgust-eliciting stimuli because covert processes automatically initiate the evaluation of pathogen threats. The fact that state and trait pathogen avoidance do not influence this temporal attentional bias suggests that early attentional processing of pathogen cues is initiated independent from the context in which such cues are perceived.

scholarly journals Exploring the role of expectations and stimulus relevance on stimulus-specific neural representations and conscious report

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik L Meijs ◽  
Pim Mostert ◽  
Heleen A Slagter ◽  
Floris P de Lange ◽  
Simon van Gaal
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Blink ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
Dependent Signal ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Abstract Subjective experience can be influenced by top-down factors, such as expectations and stimulus relevance. Recently, it has been shown that expectations can enhance the likelihood that a stimulus is consciously reported, but the neural mechanisms supporting this enhancement are still unclear. We manipulated stimulus expectations within the attentional blink (AB) paradigm using letters and combined visual psychophysics with magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recordings to investigate whether prior expectations may enhance conscious access by sharpening stimulus-specific neural representations. We further explored how stimulus-specific neural activity patterns are affected by the factors expectation, stimulus relevance and conscious report. First, we show that valid expectations about the identity of an upcoming stimulus increase the likelihood that it is consciously reported. Second, using a series of multivariate decoding analyses, we show that the identity of letters presented in and out of the AB can be reliably decoded from MEG data. Third, we show that early sensory stimulus-specific neural representations are similar for reported and missed target letters in the AB task (active report required) and an oddball task in which the letter was clearly presented but its identity was task-irrelevant. However, later sustained and stable stimulus-specific representations were uniquely observed when target letters were consciously reported (decision-dependent signal). Fourth, we show that global pre-stimulus neural activity biased perceptual decisions for a ‘seen’ response. Fifth and last, no evidence was obtained for the sharpening of sensory representations by top-down expectations. We discuss these findings in light of emerging models of perception and conscious report highlighting the role of expectations and stimulus relevance.

scholarly journals The fate of task-irrelevant visual motion: Perceptual load versus feature-based attention

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 12-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Taya ◽  
W. J. Adams ◽  
E. W. Graf ◽  
N. Lavie
Keyword(s):  
Visual Motion ◽  
Perceptual Load ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Task Irrelevant

scholarly journals Task-irrelevant visual motion and flicker attenuate the attentional blink

2006 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 600-607 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Arend ◽  
Stephen Johnston ◽  
Kimron Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Blink ◽  
Visual Motion ◽  
Task Irrelevant

scholarly journals Electrophysiological Evidence for Both Perceptual and Postperceptual Selection during the Attentional Blink

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 2005-2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Giesbrecht ◽  
Jocelyn L. Sy ◽  
James C. Elliott
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Blink ◽  
Perceptual Load ◽  
Load Condition ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Correct Identification ◽  
Complete Suppression ◽  
Context Word ◽  
Semantic Level ◽  
Context Sensitive

When two masked targets are presented in rapid succession, correct identification of the first target (T1) leads to a dramatic impairment in identification of the second target (T2). Several studies of this so-called attentional blink (AB) phenomenon have provided behavioral and physiological evidence that T2 is processed to the semantic level, despite the profound impairment in T2 report. These findings have been interpreted as an example of perception without awareness and have been explained by models that assume that T2 is processed extensively even though it does not gain access into consciousness. The present study reports two experiments that test this assumption. In Experiment 1, the perceptual load of the T1 task was manipulated and T2 was a word that was either related or unrelated to a context word presented at the beginning of each trial. The event-related potential (ERP) technique was used to isolate the context-sensitive N400 component evoked by the T2 word. The ERP data revealed that there was a complete suppression of the N400 during the AB when the perceptual load was high, but not when perceptual load was low. Experiment 2 replicated the high-load condition of Experiment 1 while ruling out two alternative explanations for the reduction of the N400 during the AB. The results of both experiments demonstrate that word meanings are not always accessed during the AB and are consistent with studies that suggest that attention can act to select information at multiple stages of processing depending on concurrent task demands.

scholarly journals Surprise-induced Deafness: Unexpected Auditory Stimuli Capture Attention to the Detriment of Subsequent Detection

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takashi Obana ◽  
Stephen Wee Hun Lim ◽  
Christopher L. Asplund
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Blink ◽  
Attentional Capture ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
Auditory Presentation ◽  
Natural Sounds ◽  
Probe Detection ◽  
Perceptual Deficit ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Our attention is often captured by unexpected or unusual sounds. Such stimulus- driven control of attention can be adaptive, as potentially relevant events need to be quickly evaluated and acted upon. Attentional capture, however, comes with a cost: Ongoing tasks may be disrupted. In a series of seven experiments (n=773), we investigated the effects of task-irrelevant, rare, and relatively unexpected sounds (“surprise stimuli”) on probe detection in rapid auditory presentation (RAP) streams. Surprise stimuli caused “Surprise-induced Deafness” (SiD), a severe detection deficit that lasted for under one second within each trial and gradually habituated across several trials. SiD was sensitive to informational “surprise”, with larger deficits following stimuli that were infrequent or varied across trials. The effect also generalized: Natural sounds or constructed stimuli could disrupt detection of either spoken letters or simple tones. We also compared SiD to the auditory attentional blink (AAB), a similar paradigm in which goal-directed target processing disrupts probe detection. We found that the two deficits were weakly correlated. We conclude that SiD is a novel perceptual deficit that primarily reflects stimulus-driven attentional capture. It may involve other forms of attentional control as well, thereby reflecting multiple attentional influences on awareness.

scholarly journals Attention Capture by Angry Faces Depends on the Distribution of Attention

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Joshua James Foster
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Load ◽  
Detection System ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Attention Capture ◽  
Threat Detection ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Attention Selection ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Visual Properties ◽  
Threat Stimuli

<p>The threat-capture hypothesis posits a threat-detection system that automatically directs visual attention to threat-related stimuli (e.g., angry facial expressions) in the environment. Importantly, this system is theorised to operate preattentively, processing all input across the visual field in parallel, prior to the operation of selective attention. The threat-capture hypothesis generates two predictions. First, because the threat-detection system directs attention to threat automatically, threat stimuli should capture attention when they are task-irrelevant and the observer has no intention to attend to them. Second, because the threat-detection system operates preattentively, threat stimuli should capture attention even when it is engaged elsewhere. This thesis tested these predictions using behavioural measures of attention capture in conjunction with the N2pc, an event-related potential (ERP) index of attention selection. Experiment 1 tested the first prediction of the threat-capture hypothesis – that threat stimuli capture attention when they are task-irrelevant. Participants performed a dot-probe task in which pairs of face cues – one angry and one neutral – preceded a lateral target. On some trials, the faces were Fourier phase-scrambled to control for low-level visual properties. Consistent with the threat-capture hypothesis, an N2pc was observed for angry faces, suggesting they captured attention despite being completely task-irrelevant. Interestingly, this effect remained when faces were Fourier phase-scrambled, suggesting it is low-level visual properties that drive attention capture by angry faces. Experiments 2A and 2B tested the second prediction of the threat capture hypothesis – that threat stimuli capture attention when it is engaged elsewhere. Participants performed a primary task in which they searched a column of letters at fixation for a target letter. The perceptual load of this task was manipulated to ensure that attentional resources were consumed by this task. Thus there were high and low perceptual load conditions in these experiments. Task-irrelevant angry faces interfered with task performance when the perceptual load of the task was high but not when it was low (Experiment 2A). Similarly, angry faces elicited an N2pc, indicating that they captured attention, but only when perceptual load was high and when faces were phase-scrambled (Experiment 2B). These experiments further suggest that low-level visual factors are important in attention capture by angry faces. These results appear to be inconsistent with the threat-capture hypothesis, and suggest that angry faces do not necessarily capture attention when it is engaged elsewhere.</p>

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