Attention To Conditions Research Articles

Immediate effects of verbal instructions with internal focus of attention and external focus of attention on forward reach movement while standing.

[Purpose] This study aimed to examine the immediate effects of verbal instructions with an internal and external focus of attention on forward reach movement while standing. [Participants and Methods] Thirty-seven healthy young males performed reach movement in three conditions: control, internal focus of attention, and external focus of attention. The measurements recorded were the movement distance of the third metacarpal bone (reach distance), the distance of the center of pressure, and the movement angles between the acromion and malleolus lateralis and between the acromion and trochanter major. [Results] Compared to the control condition, the internal focus of attention condition had a lower reach distance, angles between the acromion and malleolus lateralis and between the acromion and trochanter major, and center of pressure distance. In contrast, compared to the control condition, the external focus of attention condition showed higher reach distance and angles between the acromion and malleolus lateralis and between the acromion and trochanter major. The change rate of reach distance in the internal and external focus of attention conditions correlated significantly with the change rates of the angles between the acromion and malleolus lateralis and between the acromion and trochanter major. [Conclusion] Verbal instructions with attentional focus resulted in the simultaneous adjustment of the positional relationship between trunk and hip and immediately affected the reach distance. Our findings suggest that verbal instruction with attentional focus is an important factor affecting reach movement.

Embedding key word sign prompts in a shared book reading activity: The impact on communication between children with Down syndrome and their parents.

Children with Down syndrome have speech and language difficulties that are disproportionate to their overall intellectual ability and relative strengths in the use of gesture. Shared book reading between parents and their children provides an effective context in which language development can be facilitated. However, children with Down syndrome often take a passive role in shared book reading and the use of key word signing (KWS) as a shared book reading technique has never been investigated. This study aimed to compare children with Down syndrome's participation and use of KWS across two methods of shared book reading - one in which a book had key-word sign prompts embedded (signed condition) and the other in which a book was read as normal (unsigned condition). Measures of child and parent communicative behaviour were taken in each condition to establish if differences emerged. A total of 36 children with Down syndrome (aged between 18 and 61 months) and their mothers took part in the study. Parent-child dyads were videoed at home reading two books, one in a signed and one in an unsigned condition. Child measures included total number of signs produced in each condition and levels of attention and initiation as measured by the Pivotal Behaviour Rating Scale. Parent measures included total number of utterances, mean length of utterance (MLU) in morphemes and vocabulary diversity (VOCD). Parental measures were transcribed using the Codes for Human Analysis Transcripts (CHAT) software and analysed by the Computerised Language Analysis software (CLAN). Contrasts in outcomes between the signed and unsigned conditions were estimated using Poisson and linear mixed-effects models, determined by the type of data. Results showed that children attempted to sign significantly more in the signed than unsigned condition, as well as showing significant increases in their levels of attention and initiation. There was also a significant increase in the total number of utterances used by parents in the signed versus unsigned condition and a decrease in MLU. VOCD was similar in both conditions. This study shows that the simple act of embedding key word signs into commercially available books, during shared book reading between parents and young children with Down syndrome, positively affects children's participation (initiation and attention) and use of KWS. The use of KWS as a core shared book reading technique may therefore be a fruitful avenue to facilitate growth in the language abilities of young children with Down syndrome. What is already known on this subject Most children with Down syndrome have significant speech and language difficulties, with relative strengths in the use of gesture. Shared book reading is an activity reported to positively affect language. However, children with Down syndrome are reported to take a passive role in shared book reading and are therefore more dependent on their parents to use techniques that facilitate their levels of participation, in order to maximise potential benefits. To the best of our knowledge, the communicative effects of embedding key word signing (KWS) in shared book reading have never been examined with children with Down syndrome. What this paper adds to existing knowledge This is the first study to investigate the communicative impact of parents embedding KWS in a shared book reading activity with their young children with Down syndrome. Our findings show that this relatively simple manipulation resulted in Increase in children's sign attempts. Increase in children's overall participation in shared book reading (indicated by levels of attention and initiation). Increase in the number of utterances produced by parents (primarily as a result of repetitions). Decrease in parental mean length of utterance. These findings suggest that embedding KWS in shared book reading is likely to facilitate increased language abilities in this cohort. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Shared book reading is part of the daily routine for many parents and their children with Down syndrome. Integrating KWS is a relatively simple adaptation to this activity which is likely to enhance children's language skills. Therapists can encourage parents to do this at home to support work carried out at school and in a clinical setting.

Music Valence Can Affect Dichotic Listening Performance

Background and Aim: Music can regulate the activity of brain structures that play a significant role in emotions. The perceived emotion techniques such as dichotic listening clarify the relationships between auditory emotional stimuli and hemispheric asymmetries in the auditory modality. We examined the impact of pleasantness/unpleasantness of music by Acceptable Noise Level (ANL) as a subjective measure of listeners’ willingness to accept background noise. Methods: In this study, 32 participants rated their pleasantness with about ten songs; then, we considered the effect of preferred pleasant and unpleasant music on dichotic music listening and acceptable background noise. There were six forced attention conditions to calculate ANL, followed by measuring the most comfortable level and background noise level for each condition. Results: The pairwise comparison analyses revealed significantly higher ANL in forced attention to pleasant music than to speech (p<0.004) and unpleasant music to the left ear (p≤0.05). The mean ANLs difference in 2 groups of right ear advantage and left ear advantage showed significant intra-hemispheric differences in the forced pleasant music attention than the forced unpleasant music attention conditions (p<0.007), and forced speech conditions (p=0.001), only in the left ear advantage group. In addition, the interaction between conditions and groups showed interhemispheric asymmetry. Conclusion: Music valence and intra- and interhemispheric differences can affect the ANL dichotic processing and, consequently, lower noise tolerance (higher ANL) in forced pleasant music attention conditions. Keywords: Acceptable noise level; dichotic listening test; music valence; functional laterality

Visual attention does not affect the reliability of otoacoustic emission or medial olivocochlear reflex.

This study investigated whether visual attention affects the reliability (i.e., repeatability) of transiently evoked otoacoustic emission (TEOAE) magnitudes or of medial olivocochlear reflex (MOCR) estimates. TEOAEs were measured during three visual attentional conditions: control (subject were seated with eyes closed); passive (subjects looked at a pattern of squares on a computer screen); and active (subjects silently counted an occasionally inverted pattern). To estimate reliability, the whole recording session was repeated the next day. The results showed that visual attention does not significantly affect TEOAE or MOCR magnitudes-or their reliability. It is therefore possible to employ visual stimuli (e.g., watching a silent movie) during TEOAE experiments, a procedure sometimes used during testing to prevent subjects from falling asleep or to keep children still and quiet.

Impact of Subsidiary TMT Network Attention on Innovation: The Moderating Role of Subsidiary Autonomy

ABSTRACTThis article takes group subsidiaries that were listed in the A-share market of Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges in China from 2012 to 2017 as the research subject and innovatively explores the impact of subsidiary TMT (top management team) attention at different networks on subsidiary innovation, considering dual network embedding characteristics and autonomy of subsidiaries. Results show that subsidiary TMT group network attention will inhibit subsidiary innovation, while their external network attention will promote subsidiary innovation, after the inclusion of industry category factors, the effect has changed accordingly, but the moderating effect of subsidiary autonomy on the relationship between subsidiary TMT attention on different networks and subsidiary innovation is always significant. The identification of subsidiary TMT attention not only supplements to current literature's narrow focus on impact of the group parent company attention on subsidiary behaviors, but also broadens theoretical understanding of the driving factors of innovation behavior of subsidiaries. Through expounding on the moderating role of subsidiary autonomy, this article clarifies boundary conditions of subsidiary TMT attention's impact on subsidiary innovation and provides operable guidance for subsidiary TMT to allocate and utilize their attention to promote the development of subsidiary innovation behaviors.

Screen Time and Attention Subdomains in Children Aged 6 to 10 Years.

Using digital media has become the most popular leisure activity for children and adolescents. The effects of digital media use on the developing brain and cognitive processes of children are subject to debate. Here, we examine the effect of digital media use on attention subdomains in children aged 6 to 10 years. In total, 77 children participated in the study. Selective and divided attention as well as switching between attentional subdomains were quantified by the SwAD-task. Parents were asked to assess the screen time of their children (smartphone, laptop/PC, game console, tablet, TV). Results show no main or interaction effects of screen time on any of the attention conditions investigated. Based on the present findings as well as previous studies, we suggest a possible non-linear relationship between the amount of screen time and attention function. Furthermore, we emphasize the relevance of considering the socio-economic background of children and a need for longitudinal studies.

The Erp Feature Of Baduanjin Preparatory Posture In Different Attention Condition

The Erp Feature Of Baduanjin Preparatory Posture In Different Attention Condition

No signs of automatic perspective-taking or its modulation by joint attention in toddlers using an object retrieval task.

It is currently debated whether simple forms of social perspective-taking that are in place by late infancy are performed automatically. We conducted two experiments (N = 124) to test whether 3-year-olds show automatic perspective-taking during object searches, and whether automatic perspective-taking is facilitated by joint attention. Children were asked to retrieve an object immediately after it was moved from one (L1) to another (L2) location within a container, e.g. a sandbox. In Experiment 1, a between-subjects design was used, with children being randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: one in which child and other jointly attended to the object in L1 (joint attention condition); one in which the other was present but unengaged with the child when the object was placed in L1 (other present condition) and a baseline condition in which only the child was present (no other condition). Automatic perspective-taking should manifest in biased searches toward L1 in the other present and joint attention conditions, but not in the no other condition. No automatic perspective-taking was observed in either experiment, regardless of whether the other person left and remained absent (Experiment 1) or returned after the object was relocated (Experiment 2). The findings contribute to a growing body of empirical data that questions the existence of automatic perspective-taking.

Examining Different Foci of Attention on Golf Putting Performance in Novice Learners

Although research has leaned toward an external focus, there is no consensus on the optimal distance of the attentional focus for novice learners. The purpose of this study was to examine which type of attentional focus is beneficial for the novices performing golf putting task. Forty-five novice learners (23 males, 22 females), aged 20 to 37, participated in this study. Participants were randomized into the attentional focus of attention (FOA) conditions of internal (i.e., focus on the arm movement), external-proximal (i.e., focus on the golf club), and external-distal (i.e., focus on the target). Each participant was requested to perform four blocks of 10 putts on an artificial putting surface. The total number of putts made, total putt points achieved, and perceived confidence for each putt were recorded. A 4 (block) × 3 (condition) mixed-design analysis of variance was applied for data analysis. The external-proximal FOA condition had significantly better performance (i.e., more putt points) than the external-distal FOA condition. Under the internal FOA condition, participants significantly made more golf putt points during the third and fourth blocks than the first block. Perceived confidence was significantly elevated during the third block and fourth block compared to the first block across all conditions. Postexperimental manipulation check showed most participants adopted the focus as they were instructed. The external-distal FOA may be detrimental for novice learners in skill acquisition. Putting performance was related to the perceived confidence for the golf stroke. Therefore, it is recommended that practitioners consider the OPTIMAL theory by facilitating external-proximal FOA and the motivational factor together for novice learners.

The Effects of Spatial Attention Focus and Visual Awareness on the Processing of Fearful Faces: An ERP Study.

Previous research on the relationship between attention and emotion processing have focused essentially on consciously-viewed, supraliminal stimuli, while the attention-emotion interplay remains unexplored in situations where visual awareness is restricted. Here, we presented participants with face pairs in a backward masking paradigm and examined the electrophysiological activity in response to fearful and neutral expressions under different conditions of attention (spatially attended vs. unattended) and stimulus visibility (subliminal vs. supraliminal). We found an enhanced N2 (visual awareness negativity -VAN-) and an enhanced P3 for supraliminal compared to subliminal faces. The VAN, indexing the early perceptual awareness, was enhanced when the faces were spatially attended compared to when they were unattended, showing that the VAN does not require spatial attention focus but can be enhanced by it. Fearful relative to neutral expressions enhanced the early neural activity (N2) regardless of spatial attention but only in the supraliminal viewing condition. However, fear-related enhancements on later neural activity (P3) were found when stimuli were both attended and presented supraliminally. These findings suggest that visual awareness is needed for emotion processing during both early and late stages. Spatial attention is required for emotion processing at the later stage but not at the early stage.

Neural basis for anxiety and anxiety-related physiological responses during a driving situation: an fMRI study.

Although the exteroceptive and interoceptive prediction of a negative event increases a person’s anxiety in daily life situations, the relationship between the brain mechanism of anxiety and the anxiety-related autonomic response has not been fully understood. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we examined the neural basis of anxiety and anxiety-related autonomic responses in a daily driving situation. Participants viewed a driving video clip in the first-person perspective. During the video clip, participants were presented with a cue to indicate whether a subsequent crash could occur (attention condition) or not (safe condition). Enhanced activities in the anterior insula, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, thalamus, and periaqueductal gray, and higher sympathetic nerve responses (pupil dilation and peripheral arterial stiffness) were triggered by the attention condition but not with the safe condition. Autonomic response-related functional connectivity was detected in the visual cortex, cerebellum, brainstem, and MCC/PCC with the right anterior insula and its adjacent regions as seed regions. Thus, the right anterior insula and adjacent regions, in collaboration with other regions play a role in eliciting anxiety based on the prediction of negative events, by mediating anxiety-related autonomic responses according to interoceptive information.

Increasing the spatial extent of attention strengthens surround suppression

Here we investigate how the extent of spatial attention affects center-surround interaction in visual motion processing. To do so, we measured motion direction discrimination thresholds in humans using drifting gratings and two attention conditions. Participants were instructed to limit their attention to the central part of the stimulus under the narrow attention condition, and to both central and surround parts under the wide attention condition. We found stronger surround suppression under the wide attention condition. The magnitude of the attention effect increased with the size of the surround when the stimulus had low contrast, but did not change when it had high contrast. Results also showed that attention had a weaker effect when the center and surround gratings drifted in opposite directions. Next, to establish a link between the behavioral results and the neuronal response characteristics, we performed computer simulations using the divisive normalization model. Our simulations showed that using smaller versus larger multiplicative attentional gain and parameters derived from the medial temporal (MT) area of the cortex, the model can successfully predict the observed behavioral results. These findings reveal the critical role of spatial attention on surround suppression and establish a link between neuronal activity and behavior. Further, these results also suggest that the reduced surround suppression found in certain clinical disorders (e.g., schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder) may be caused by abnormal attention mechanisms.

Effects of task load, spatial attention, and trait anxiety on neuronal responses to fearful and neutral faces

There is an ongoing debate on how different components of the event-related potential (ERP) to threat-related facial expressions are modulated by attentional conditions and interindividual differences in trait anxiety. In the current study (N=80), we examined ERPs to centrally presented, task-irrelevant fearful and neutral faces, while participants had to solve a face-unrelated visual task, which differed in difficulty and spatial position. Critically, we used a fixation-controlled experimental design and ensured the spatial attention manipulation by spectral analysis of the EEG. Besides the factors emotion, spatial attention, and perceptual load, we also investigated correlations between trait anxiety and ERPs. While P1 emotion effects were insignificant, the N170 was increased to fearful faces regardless of load and spatial attention conditions. During the EPN time window, a significantly increased negativity for fearful faces was observed only during low load and spatial attention to the face. We found no significant relationship between ERPs and trait anxiety, questioning the hypothesis of a general hypersensitivity toward fearful expressions in anxious individuals. These results show a high resistance of the N170 amplitude increase for fearful faces to spatial attention and task load manipulations. By contrast, the EPN modulation by fearful faces index a resource-dependent stage of the ERP, requiring both spatial attention at the location of faces and low load of the face-irrelevant task.

Attention and Memory in Depersonalization-Spectrum Dissociative Disorders: Impact of Selective-Divided Attentional Condition, Stimulus Emotionality, and Stress

ABSTRACT We investigated cognition in depersonalization-spectrum dissociative disorders without comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder to explore evidence for emotionally avoidant information processing. Forty-eight participants with DSM-IV dissociative disorder (DD) (Depersonalization Disorder – 37, Dissociative Disorder NOS −11), 36 participants with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and 56 healthy controls (HC) were administered the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS); the Weschler Memory Scale-III (WMS); and three Stroop tasks: the Standard Stroop, a selective-attention Emotional Stroop using neutral, dissociation, and trauma-related word categories, and a divided-attention Emotional Stroop using comparable words. Participants were also administered a paired-associates explicit and implicit memory test using emotionally neutral and negative words, before and after the Trier Social Stress Test. The DD and HC groups had comparable general intelligence and memory scores, though dissociation severity was inversely related to verbal comprehension and working memory. In the selective-attention condition, DD participants showed greater incidental recall across word categories with comparable interference. However in the divided-attention condition, DD participants significantly favored lesser attentional interference at the expense of remembering words. Across attentional conditions, DD participants had better recall for disorder-related than neutral words. Pre-stress, the DD group demonstrated better explicit memory for neutral versus negative words with reversal after stress, whereas the HC group demonstrated the opposite pattern; implicit memory did not differ. Cognition in the PTSD control group was generally dissimilar to the DD group. The findings in toto provide substantial evidence for emotionally avoidant information processing in DD, vulnerable to the impact of stress, at the level of both attention and memory.

PEDAGOGICAL CONDITIONS OF CREATIVE FORMATION PERSONALITIES OF THE FUTURE TEACHER

The article deals with higher educational process of teaching with due regard for objective and subjective conditions of future teachers training Special attention is given to intensification of motivation in teaching, emotional value of the future profession, substantial and technological renovation in teaching.

Effects of alcohol hangover on attentional resources during a verbal memory/psychomotor tracking dual attention task

BackgroundAlcohol hangover (AH) is associated with impaired attention and memory performance. However, whether this effect is related to reduced attentional resources remains unclear.AimsA dual-attention paradigm was employed to assess the effects of AH on attentional resources, delayed memory recognition, and the interaction between attentional load and AH. Mental effort and perceived performance during AH and control conditions were also assessed.MethodsA seminaturalistic, crossover design was used. In total, 25 healthy social drinkers aged 18–35 years, visited the laboratory following a typical night out drinking (Hangover condition) and after alcohol abstinence (control) between 8:30 am and 12:30 pm, with conditions counterbalanced. Attentional load was manipulated via the presence (dual attention) or absence of psychomotor tracking during verbal memory encoding. Perceived mental effort and performance were measured using the NASA-TLX. Participants’ recollected alcohol consumption was used to compute estimated blood alcohol level (eBAC).ResultsCompared with the control visit, AH was associated with reduced recognition accuracy (particularly more false negatives), higher “tracking costs” (poorer accuracy) in the dual attention condition, increased ratings of “mental demand,” “effort,” and “frustration,” and lower ratings of task performance. There was also a significant main effect of attentional load with poorer recognition accuracy and response time in the dual attention condition. There were no significant interaction effects between hangover and attentional load.ConclusionThese findings suggest that reduced attentional resources contribute to the cognitive deficits associated with AH including impaired memory consolidation. They further suggest that while hungover, participants are aware of these deficits but are unable to compensate.

Isolating the Neural Substrates of Visually Guided Attention Orienting in Humans.

The neural processes that enable healthy humans to orient attention to sudden visual events are poorly understood because they are tightly intertwined with purely sensory processes. Here we isolated visually guided orienting activity from sensory activity using event-related potentials (ERPs). By recording ERPs to a lateral stimulus and comparing waveforms obtained under conditions of attention and inattention, we identified an early positive deflection over the ipsilateral visual cortex that was associated with the covert orienting of visual attention to the stimulus. Across five experiments with male and female adult participants, this ipsilateral visual orienting activity (VOA) could be distinguished from purely sensory-evoked activity and from other top-down spatial attention effects. The VOA was linked with behavioral measures of orienting, being significantly larger when the stimulus was detected rapidly than when it was detected more slowly, and its presence was independent of saccadic eye movements toward the targets. The VOA appears to be a specific neural index of the visually guided orienting of attention to a stimulus that appears abruptly in an otherwise uncluttered visual field.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The study of visual attention orienting has been an important impetus for the field of cognitive neuroscience. Seminal reaction-time studies demonstrated that a suddenly appearing visual stimulus attracts attention involuntarily, but the neural processes associated with visually guided attention orienting have been difficult to isolate because they are intertwined with sensory processes that trigger the orienting. Here, we disentangled orienting activity from sensory activity using scalp recordings of event-related electrical activity in the human brain. A specific neural index of visually guided attention orienting was identified. Surprisingly, whereas peripheral sensory stimulation is processed initially and predominantly by the contralateral visual cortex, this electrophysiological index of visual orienting was recorded over the cerebral hemisphere that was ipsilateral to the attention-capturing stimulus.

Perception of temporal cues in word segments under bimodal divided attention in simulated cochlear implant listening

Auditory temporal processing is important for cochlear-implant (CI) users to understand speech. Speech processing often unfolds along with sensory inputs from other modalities. This study examined whether dividing attention across modalities affects temporal processing of word segments in simulated CI listening. Adults with normal hearing performed categorization tasks on unprocessed and 8-channel vocoded versions of a Dish-Ditch contrast with varying silent intervals preceding the word-final fricative. The categorization performance was measured concurrently with a visual working memory task on meaningless images. This divided attention (AV-div) condition was compared with an audiovisual selective attention (AV-sel) condition in which participants focused on the categorization task and ignored the visual stimuli, and with an auditory-only (AO) condition in which participants performed the categorization task without the visual stimuli. Preliminary results (N = 5) revealed that participants tended to report more “Dish” responses for words with longer silence intervals under the two AV conditions than the AO condition, especially for the AV-div condition. The AV-related effects on the categorization performance appear to be reduced for vocoded than unprocessed words. These results suggest that concurrent visual information affects auditory temporal processing, which might lead to speech understanding difficulties of CI users in multisensory contexts.

Development of the forms of educational and research activities in school education for the formation of students’ ethnocultural competence

Issues of organization of educational and research activities in the conditions of modern school education draw attention of contemporary researchers. One of the methodological issues is the organization of educational and research activities of schoolchildren in the study of extant “echoes” of traditional folklore holidays and modern spoken folklore genres. The article describes the sequence of organizing work on the study of folklore and algorithms for collecting, processing, and storing texts of spoken folklore in the school curriculum. In addition, the paper introduces the idea of a “native land corner” as a form of extracurricular (local history) activities at school. The study provides the methodology of the organization of the Corner, its rubrics, and topics. The authors consider the peculiarities of the study of local history study of the Small Motherland as part of the Fatherland to a global scale (the native microcosm – the region – Russia – the world).

Steady-state visual evoked potentials differentiate between internally and externally directed attention

While attention to external visual stimuli has been extensively studied, attention directed internally towards mental contents (e.g., thoughts, memories) or bodily signals (e.g., breathing, heartbeat) has only recently become a subject of increased interest, due to its relation to interoception, contemplative practices and mental health. The present study aimed at expanding the methodological toolbox for studying internal attention, by examining for the first time whether the steady-state visual evoked potential (ssVEP), a well-established measure of attention, can differentiate between internally and externally directed attention. To this end, we designed a task in which flickering dots were used to generate ssVEPs, and instructed participants to count visual targets (external attention condition) or their heartbeats (internal attention condition). We compared the ssVEP responses between conditions, along with alpha-band activity and the heartbeat evoked potential (HEP) - two electrophysiological measures associated with internally directed attention. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found that both the magnitude and the phase synchronization of the ssVEP decreased when attention was directed internally, suggesting that ssVEP measures are able to differentiate between internal and external attention. Additionally, and in line with previous findings, we found larger suppression of parieto-occipital alpha-band activity and an increase of the HEP amplitude in the internal attention condition. Furthermore, we found a trade-off between changes in ssVEP response and changes in HEP and alpha-band activity: when shifting from internal to external attention, increase in ssVEP response was related to a decrease in parieto-occipital alpha-band activity and HEP amplitudes. These findings suggest that shifting between external and internal directed attention prompts a re-allocation of limited processing resources that are shared between external sensory and interoceptive processing.