The processing of sensory information relies on interacting mechanisms of sustained attention and... more The processing of sensory information relies on interacting mechanisms of sustained attention and attentional capture, both of which operate in space and on object features. While evidence indicates that exogenous attentional capture, a mechanism previously understood to be automatic, can be eliminated while concurrently performing a demanding task, we reframe this phenomenon within the theoretical framework of the "attention set" (Most et al., 2005). Consequently, the specific prediction that cuing effects should reappear when feature dimensions of the cue overlap with those in the attention set (i.e., elements of the demanding task) was empirically tested and confirmed using a dual-task paradigm involving both sustained attention and attentional capture, adapted from Santangelo et al. (2007). Participants were required to either detect a centrally presented target presented in a stream of distractors (the primary task), or respond to a spatially cued target (the secondary task). Importantly, the spatial cue could either share features with the target in the centrally presented primary task, or not share any features. Overall, the findings supported the attention set hypothesis showing that a spatial cuing effect was only observed when the peripheral cue shared a feature with objects that were already in the attention set (i.e., the primary task). However, this finding was accompanied by differential attentional orienting dependent on the different types of objects within the attention set, with feature-based orienting occurring for target-related objects, and additional spatial-based orienting for distractor-related objects.
ABSTRACT Although not currently a widely accepted notion, evidence suggests an anisotropy between... more ABSTRACT Although not currently a widely accepted notion, evidence suggests an anisotropy between horizontal and vertical orientations in visual processing. While there is evidence of an early neurological bias due to a greater number of cortical neurons tuned to the horizontal orientation, recent behavioral evidence suggests a "horizontal effect", where performance for broadband horizontal stimuli is worse compared to vertical and oblique. Importantly however, this effect has only been observed for complex stimuli and is speculated to counterbalance for the greater occurrence of horizontal stimuli in the environment. In this experiment, we used a staircase temporal order judgment task in three spatial configurations (horizontal, vertical, and both) to test for 1) a bias towards either horizontal or vertical simple stimuli, and 2) whether performance would vary across different planes of stimuli presentation. A bias towards horizontal stimuli was observed, but only when presented in the horizontal plane. Theoretical implications are discussed.
ABSTRACT Although musical training has been correlated with modulations of early perceptual and a... more ABSTRACT Although musical training has been correlated with modulations of early perceptual and attentional processes, the majority of investigations neglect the possibility of cross modality enhancements. We investigated the effects of musical training by measuring spatial and temporal attention in a temporal order judgment task in auditory, visual, and crossmodal conditions with and without non-predictive cues. In Experiment 1, musicians had lower detection thresholds when compared to controls in all conditions (marginal in auditory). Experiment 2 showed mixed findings, with musicians demonstrating reduced capture from visual cues on the visual task compared to controls, and lower detection thresholds on the auditory task with visual cues. Adding spatial cues to the temporal order judgment tasks increased temporal thresholds for both groups, but only when they occurred within the same modality as the task, and not when presented in a different modality. The findings support both supramodal and segregated accounts of attentional resources.
... Ahnate Lim (ahnate@hawaii.edu) Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii at Manoa 2530 D... more ... Ahnate Lim (ahnate@hawaii.edu) Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii at Manoa 2530 Dole Street, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA ... An adaptation of Stelmach and Herdman's (1991) step-function procedure was used to determine the SOAs for each trial. ...
The processing of sensory information relies on interacting mechanisms of sustained attention and... more The processing of sensory information relies on interacting mechanisms of sustained attention and attentional capture, both of which operate in space and on object features. While evidence indicates that exogenous attentional capture, a mechanism previously understood to be automatic, can be eliminated while concurrently performing a demanding task, we reframe this phenomenon within the theoretical framework of the "attention set" (Most et al., 2005). Consequently, the specific prediction that cuing effects should reappear when feature dimensions of the cue overlap with those in the attention set (i.e., elements of the demanding task) was empirically tested and confirmed using a dual-task paradigm involving both sustained attention and attentional capture, adapted from Santangelo et al. (2007). Participants were required to either detect a centrally presented target presented in a stream of distractors (the primary task), or respond to a spatially cued target (the secondary task). Importantly, the spatial cue could either share features with the target in the centrally presented primary task, or not share any features. Overall, the findings supported the attention set hypothesis showing that a spatial cuing effect was only observed when the peripheral cue shared a feature with objects that were already in the attention set (i.e., the primary task). However, this finding was accompanied by differential attentional orienting dependent on the different types of objects within the attention set, with feature-based orienting occurring for target-related objects, and additional spatial-based orienting for distractor-related objects.
ABSTRACT Although not currently a widely accepted notion, evidence suggests an anisotropy between... more ABSTRACT Although not currently a widely accepted notion, evidence suggests an anisotropy between horizontal and vertical orientations in visual processing. While there is evidence of an early neurological bias due to a greater number of cortical neurons tuned to the horizontal orientation, recent behavioral evidence suggests a "horizontal effect", where performance for broadband horizontal stimuli is worse compared to vertical and oblique. Importantly however, this effect has only been observed for complex stimuli and is speculated to counterbalance for the greater occurrence of horizontal stimuli in the environment. In this experiment, we used a staircase temporal order judgment task in three spatial configurations (horizontal, vertical, and both) to test for 1) a bias towards either horizontal or vertical simple stimuli, and 2) whether performance would vary across different planes of stimuli presentation. A bias towards horizontal stimuli was observed, but only when presented in the horizontal plane. Theoretical implications are discussed.
ABSTRACT Although musical training has been correlated with modulations of early perceptual and a... more ABSTRACT Although musical training has been correlated with modulations of early perceptual and attentional processes, the majority of investigations neglect the possibility of cross modality enhancements. We investigated the effects of musical training by measuring spatial and temporal attention in a temporal order judgment task in auditory, visual, and crossmodal conditions with and without non-predictive cues. In Experiment 1, musicians had lower detection thresholds when compared to controls in all conditions (marginal in auditory). Experiment 2 showed mixed findings, with musicians demonstrating reduced capture from visual cues on the visual task compared to controls, and lower detection thresholds on the auditory task with visual cues. Adding spatial cues to the temporal order judgment tasks increased temporal thresholds for both groups, but only when they occurred within the same modality as the task, and not when presented in a different modality. The findings support both supramodal and segregated accounts of attentional resources.
... Ahnate Lim (ahnate@hawaii.edu) Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii at Manoa 2530 D... more ... Ahnate Lim (ahnate@hawaii.edu) Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii at Manoa 2530 Dole Street, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA ... An adaptation of Stelmach and Herdman's (1991) step-function procedure was used to determine the SOAs for each trial. ...
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