Abstract
Attention is a process that alters how cognitive resources are allocated, and it allows individuals to efficiently process information at the attended location. The presence of visual or auditory cues in the environment can direct the focus of attention toward certain stimuli even if the cued stimuli are not the individual’s primary target. Samson et al. demonstrated that seeing another person in the scene (i.e., a person-like cue) caused a delay in responding to target stimuli not visible to that person: “alter-centric intrusion.” This phenomenon, they argue, is dependent upon the fact that the cue used resembled a person as opposed to a more generic directional indicator. The characteristics of the cue are the core of the debate of this special issue. Some maintain that the perceptual-directional characteristics of the cue are sufficient to generate the bias while others argue that the cuing is stronger when the cue has social characteristics (relates to what another individual can perceive). The research contained in this issue confirms that human attention is biased by the presence of a directional cue. We discuss and compare the different studies. The pattern that emerges seems to suggest that the social relevance of the cue is necessary in some contexts but not in others, depending on the cognitive demand of the experimental task. One possibility is that the social mechanisms are involved in perspective taking when the task is cognitively demanding, while they may not play a role in automatic attention allocation.
Highlights
The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal in Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy [1]is a beast so stupid that it thinks that if a person cannot see it, it cannot see that person
It is possible that people are a2 of little bit like the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal in that they cannot help being affected by what other people see.by
Results from the study showed that, regardless of its task relevance, a visual location with a strong ocularity contrast attracts attention. These findings are in line with previous literature, which supports the idea that the primary visual cortex creates a bottom-up saliency map to guide attention exogenously
Summary
The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal in Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy [1]. It is possible that people are a2 of little bit like the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal in that they cannot help being affected by what other people see.by This is the key tenet of a social perspective-taking view of attention. Theseofcues can (RAS) are associated(or with sensoryrather stimulation and generated by unforeseen in voluntary the visual produce an automatic reflexive) than a voluntary orientation of attentionchanges [4].While field,depends abrupt expectations onset of stimuli, which elicit reorienting saccadic eye shift upon by the the observer’s and intentions, reflexive shifts ofand attention (RAS). 1), which particular, taking in consideration the notion of “Theory of Mind” [5], it has been suggested that causes errors slower responses when reporting weissee, if this is different what the attention can beor reflexively shiftedtoward where anotherwhat person looking.
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