Prime Attention Research Articles

Priming atencional en patrones visuales jerárquicos: Efectos del nivel atendido, tamaño absoluto y congruencia estimular

<p>Previous studies on the visual processing of hierarchical stimuli showed that responses to targets presented either in the local or in the global level were faster when the target was presented at the same hierarchical level as the previous trial (sequential priming effect). In the present work, a new attentional priming paradigm was developed in order to explore this sequential effect by means of a within-trial design. For this purpose, two experiments were conducted manipulating attention (selective vs divided), congruency and stimulus size. Results suggested that the main factor underlying the sequential priming effect was the hierarchical level attended, at least in a selective attention task (Experiment 1). In addition, the stimulus size modulated the sequential priming effect in a divided attention task (Experiment 2). Interestingly, the sequential priming effect was only reliable when incongruent stimuli were presented.</p><p>Keywords: Priming, selective attention, divided attention, hierarchical stimuli, global/local processing.</p>

ChemInform Abstract: Towards Environmentally Benign Approaches for the Synthesis of CZTSSe Nanocrystals by a Hot Injection Method: A Status Review

AbstractReview: [100 refs.

Towards environmentally benign approaches for the synthesis of CZTSSe nanocrystals by a hot injection method: a status review.

With the earth's abundance of kesterite, recent progress in chalcogenide based Cu2ZnSn(Sx,Se1-x)4 (CZTSSe) thin films has drawn prime attention in thin film solar cells (TFSCs) research and development. This review is focused on the current developments in the synthesis of CZTS nanocrystals (NCs) using a hot injection (HI) technique and provides comprehensive discussions on the current status of CZTSSe TFSCs. This article begins with a description of the advantages of nanoparticulate based thin films, and then introduces the basics of this technique and the corresponding growth mechanism is also discussed. A brief overview further addresses a series of investigations on the developments in the HI based CZTSSe NCs using different solvents in terms of their high toxicity to environmentally benign materials. A variety of recipes and techniques for the NCs ink formulation and thereby the preparation of absorber layers using NC inks are outlined, respectively. The deposition of precursor thin films, post-deposition processes such as sulfurization or selenization treatments and the fabrication of CZTSSe NCs based solar cells and their performances are discussed. Finally, we discussed concluding remarks and the perspectives for further developments in the existing research on CZTSSe based nanoparticulate (NP) TFSCs towards future green technology.

ChemInform Abstract: Recent Advances in Solution‐Processed Inorganic Nanofilm Photodetectors

AbstractReview: 228 refs.

HRM competencies of women entrepreneurs in network marketing: a study on the influencing factors and their relationships on success

There is scarcity of research that examines the importance of HRM competencies, influencing factors and their relationships with respect to successful personnel retention in network marketing. Since women entrepreneurs form major participants in the network marketing firms worldwide, the significant rise in their attrition rate requires prime attention. This study aims to explore the influence of HRM competencies on the retention rate of women entrepreneurs in network marketing. We developed a research model to test four relevant hypotheses using theoretical foundations. The paper draws upon a survey-based data collected from more than 400 women entrepreneurs. Statistical K-means clustering and classification tree modelling techniques have been used for data analysis. This study has unearthed six main reasons for the high attrition rate of women entrepreneurs in network marketing. The results confirm significant differences among the factors of HRM competences and degrees of influence on retention of women entrepreneurs in network marketing.

Recent advances in solution-processed inorganic nanofilm photodetectors

As important opto-electronical devices, nanofilm photodetectors constructed from inorganic low-dimensional nanostructures have drawn prime attention due to their significance in basic scientific research and potential technological applications. This review highlights a selection of important topics pertinent to inorganic nanofilm photodetectors processed via solution strategies. This article begins with a description of the advantages and drawbacks of nanofilm-based photodetectors versus 1D nanostructure-based ones, and then introduces rational design and controlled syntheses of various nanofilms via different wet-chemical routes, and then mainly focuses on their optoelectronic properties and applications in photodetectors based on the different types of nanofilms. Finally, the general challenges and the potential future directions of this exciting research and technology area are presented.

HIV-positive females show blunted neurophysiological responses in an emotion–attention dual task paradigm

ObjectiveAlthough HIV is associated with decreased emotional and cognitive functioning, the mechanisms through which affective changes can alter cognitive processes in HIV-infected individuals are unknown. We aimed to clarify this question through testing the extent to which emotionally negative stimuli prime attention to a subsequent infrequently occurring auditory tone in HIV+ compared to HIV− females. MethodsAttention to emotional compared to non-emotional pictures was measured via the LPP ERP. Subsequent attention was indexed through the N1 and late processing negativity ERP. We also assessed mood and cognitive functioning in both groups. ResultsIn HIV− females, emotionally negative pictures, compared to neutral pictures, resulted in an enhanced LPP to the pictures and an enhanced N1 to subsequent tones. The HIV+ group did not show a difference in the LPP measure between picture categories, and accordingly, did not show a priming effect to the subsequent infrequent tones. ConclusionsThe ERP findings, combined with neuropsychological deficits, suggest that HIV+ females show impairments in attention to emotionally-laden stimuli and that this impairment might be related to a loss of affective priming. SignificanceThis study is the first to provide physiological evidence that the LPP, a measure of attention to emotionally-charged visual stimuli, is reduced in HIV-infected individuals. These results set the stage for future work aimed at localizing brain activation to emotional stimuli in HIV+ individuals.

Attentional priming releases crowding

Views of natural scenes unfold over time, and objects of interest that were present a moment ago tend to remain present. While visual crowding places a fundamental limit on object recognition in cluttered scenes, most studies of crowding have suffered from the limitation that they typically involved static scenes. The role of temporal continuity in crowding has therefore been unaddressed. We investigated intertrial effects upon crowding in visual scenes, showing that crowding is considerably diminished when objects remain constant on consecutive visual search trials. Repetition of both the target and distractors decreases the critical distance for crowding from flankers. More generally, our results show how object continuity through between-trial priming releases objects that would otherwise be unidentifiable due to crowding. Crowding, although it is a significant bottleneck on object recognition, can be mitigated by statistically likely temporal continuity of the objects. Crowding therefore depends not only on what is momentarily present, but also on what was previously attended.

Interdependencies between attentional priming and perceptual interpretation of ambiguous stimuli

Interdependencies between attentional priming and perceptual interpretation of ambiguous stimuli

Quality assessment of the land administration system in Pakistan

Performance issues of land administration systems, specifically the quality aspects, have been getting more attention over the last few years. Different assessment attempts have been carried out at international level, across different land administration systems in the world, to evaluate the performance of land administration systems by comparing different aspects of these systems. In all these evaluations, prime attention is given to only those measuring parameters which are common to all these systems. In some cases, legal and technical parameters are considered while the institutional and organisational parameters receive more attention in others. There have been a few efforts to standardise the procedures for assessing the performance of land administration systems at international level but there is no internationally accepted or standardised method to assess the quality of a standalone land administration system (LAS) within a country's environment. To be able to assess the quality of a standalone LAS, this paper develops a conceptual and methodological framework for carrying out in-depth analysis of the system. This research identifies those elements, indicators and variables that are required for assessing the quality of a standalone LAS. In order to identify such elements, indicators and variables to be included in the framework, a theoretical background is first discussed. A quality assessment framework and the methodological approach for assessing the quality of LASs are then developed. The approach is finally applied to assess the quality situation of the LAS in Pakistan by using the quality assessment framework via an explanatory case-study approach.

Agri‐fresh produce supply chain management: a state‐of‐the‐art literature review

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a literature review of the fresh produce supply chain management (FSCM). FSCM includes the processes from the production to consumption of fresh produce (fruits, flowers and vegetables).Design/methodology/approachLiterature review is done by systematically collecting the existing literature over a period of 20 years (1989‐2009) and classifying it on the basis of structural attributes such as problem context, methodology and the product under consideration. The literature is also categorized according to the geographic region and year of publication.FindingsThere is an increase in interest towards FSCM still there is an absence of a journal with the prime attention towards FSCM. The key finding of this review is that the main interest is towards consumer satisfaction and revenue maximization with post‐harvest waste reduction being a secondary objective. It is revealed from the review that most of the literature is fragmented and is in silos. Lack of demand forecasting, demand and supply mismatch, lesser integrated approach etc are the major causes of concerns.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors have taken only the fresh produce (fruits, flowers and vegetables), authors may also look at other perishable items such as milk, meat, etc.Practical implicationsResult shows a product‐problem‐methodology mapping which may serve as a framework for the managers addressing issues in FSCM.Originality/valueMost of the prior literature reviews are focused on a specific issue such as production planning or inventory management and ignore the broader perspective. There exists a need of having a detailed literature review covering all the operational issues in FSCM. This review fills this gap in the FSCM literature.

Establishing biomedical waste management system in Medical University of India – A successful practical approach

Abstract Biomedical waste management (BMWM) has become an important issue as it poses potential health risks and damage to the environment. Biomedical waste (BMW) if not handled in a proper way, is a potent source of diseases like HIV, Hepatitis B & C and other bacterial diseases causing serious threat to human health so prime attention needed for its safe and proper disposal. Bio-medical waste includes all the wastes generated from hospitals, medical centres, healthcare establishment and research facilities in diagnosis, treatment, immunization and associated research. According to CAG (Civic Action Group) report Government of India, 2009 there was poor management, poor awareness and lack of commitment from the top management regarding waste management practices in healthcare establishments. This paper looks upon the aspects and step-by-step approach for establishing BMWM System in tertiary level hospital and planning to make this centre a model to provide hands on training to all State Medical Colleges and other hospitals to help them establish BMWM System.

Software Engineering Research Gaps in the Cloud

This paper takes a systematic review methodology to unearth the reason for a slow adoption of cloud computing by businesses, despite the user interests and cloud advancements gained recently. The key finding is that the IT industry has taken different modelling approaches to engineer and deliver the cloud services based on the goals of different key cloud players, thereby raising various adoption challenges and concerns. In this context, there is a need for rethinking Software Engineering concepts. This motivates us to question whether the existing Software Engineering theories and modelling principles are sufficient for the new cloud computing paradigm. Due to the paucity of a comprehensive review in literature, the main aim of this review article is to identify such research gaps and insufficiencies in Software Engineering, and to provide recommendations for bridging these gaps. In this work, the systemic review of the state of the art of cloud computing has resulted in identifying four major cloud modelling gaps that require prime attention. The paper discusses these gaps and identifies the key Software Engineering challenges prevalent in addressing each of these gaps. Finally, the author proposes five topmost research recommendations specifically designed for overcoming these gaps/challenges in order to facilitate a sustainable cloud adoption. Overall, the author’s findings have established the need to rethink Software Engineering theories for arriving at a multilateral or distributed cloud modelling approach. With such rethinking, the proposed cloud design automatically incorporates cloud user-roles, interoperability, intelligent automation and trusted cloud infrastructure strategies for achieving a sustainable cloud framework of the future.

Inhibition of Irrelevant Information is Not Necessary to Performance of Expert Chess Players

Some studies on expertise have demonstrated that the difference between novices and experts can be partly due to a lack of knowledge about which information is relevant for a given situation. This lack of knowledge seems to be associated with the selection of correct information and with inhibitory processes. However, while the efficiency of inhibitory processes can lead to better performance in the normal population, it seems that experts in chess do not base their performance on this process but rather on an automatic and parallel encoding of information. Two experiments investigated the processes involved in a check detection task. The congruence of the information was manipulated in a Stroop situation similar to Reingold, Charness, Scheltetus, & Stampe (2001). The results showed that the experts did not benefit from cuing with a congruent cue and that they did not show any interference effect by the incongruent cue, contrary to less skilled chess players who benefited from cuing (Exp. 1). An attentional priming procedure confirmed the automatic encoding of chess relations in the more skilled chess players by showing no advantage from the prime in this group (Exp. 2). Taken together, the results indicate that the processing was serial for the less skilled chess players and that it was automatic and parallel for the more expert chess players. The inhibition of irrelevant information does not seem necessary to process information rapidly and efficiently.

Facilitating and inhibiting effects of priming and selection criteria in a sequence of dichotic listening trials

Competing models of attention make different predictions of how priming from recent stimulus processing could interact with intended selection. The present experiment examined the interaction between exogenous attention and endogenous priming across trial sequences. A sound cue directed attention to left, right or both sides before a dichotic syllable pair was presented. Participants were asked to report one syllable from each trial. Results showed that responses were slower on trials where one of the presented syllables had also been presented on the previous trial. Within these trials, the repeated syllable was selected less frequently, and the responses doing so were slower. Examined according to response choice on the preceding trial, syllables that had been ignored on the preceding trial tended to be ignored on the current trial (negative priming), while syllables that had been selected on the preceding trial tended to be selected on the current trial (positive priming). Responses that followed these selection biases were faster than responses that did not. Response selection was also influenced by the attention direction cue for the current trial, but not by the cue presented on the preceding trial. The results support an attentional model where traces from the preceding processing are retained, and current selection is biased to minimize cognitive conflict between recent and current processing. Negative priming appears to be due to after-effects of preceding processing, independently of the intentions behind that processing. The study accounts for positive and negative priming of dichotic listening sequences within an established, computationally viable biased competition framework.

Neural dynamics of object-based multifocal visual spatial attention and priming: Object cueing, useful-field-of-view, and crowding

How are spatial and object attention coordinated to achieve rapid object learning and recognition during eye movement search? How do prefrontal priming and parietal spatial mechanisms interact to determine the reaction time costs of intra-object attention shifts, inter-object attention shifts, and shifts between visible objects and covertly cued locations? What factors underlie individual differences in the timing and frequency of such attentional shifts? How do transient and sustained spatial attentional mechanisms work and interact? How can volition, mediated via the basal ganglia, influence the span of spatial attention? A neural model is developed of how spatial attention in the where cortical stream coordinates view-invariant object category learning in the what cortical stream under free viewing conditions. The model simulates psychological data about the dynamics of covert attention priming and switching requiring multifocal attention without eye movements. The model predicts how “attentional shrouds” are formed when surface representations in cortical area V4 resonate with spatial attention in posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and prefrontal cortex (PFC), while shrouds compete among themselves for dominance. Winning shrouds support invariant object category learning, and active surface-shroud resonances support conscious surface perception and recognition. Attentive competition between multiple objects and cues simulates reaction-time data from the two-object cueing paradigm. The relative strength of sustained surface-driven and fast-transient motion-driven spatial attention controls individual differences in reaction time for invalid cues. Competition between surface-driven attentional shrouds controls individual differences in detection rate of peripheral targets in useful-field-of-view tasks. The model proposes how the strength of competition can be mediated, though learning or momentary changes in volition, by the basal ganglia. A new explanation of crowding shows how the cortical magnification factor, among other variables, can cause multiple object surfaces to share a single surface-shroud resonance, thereby preventing recognition of the individual objects.

Finding a single guy: The role of attention in masked face priming under conditions of high attentional load

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Institute of estimation of policy in the space of the SCO

The article considers how the potential of estimation of policy in the SCO member countries (Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Tajikistan, Republic of Uzbekistan and Russian Federation) is being realized. By characterizing forming and developing institute of estimation of policy the prime attention is given to the period and the reasons of an appearance; to allocating stages of development; to the institutional environment (to normative acts, methodical tools); to the types of estimating most actively used; to target audiences; to the mechanism of involvement of the public and experts; to object of estimation (spheres of estimating activity). As a result of the short analysis of the situation developed in member countries of the SCO around formation of institute of policy estimation, the author draws a conclusion that these processes gain in each state the national specifics caused not only by strategic objectives of socioeconomic and political development, but first of all, by the directions and results of administrative reforms carried out. Herewith are being preserved certain common problems including insufficient understanding role of estimation both as an administrative tool and as a mechanism of forming civil society. A consequence is a low demand on estimation from the state structures; absence of the national organizations for estimation; a lack of vocational level of the qualified estimators; weak readiness of own methodological base; information isolation of results even of estimating researches carried out etc.

The precedence of topological change over top-down attention in masked priming

Recent data indicate that unconscious masked priming can be mediated by top-down attentional set, so that priming effects of congruence between a masked prime and a subsequent probe vanish when the congruence ceases to be task relevant. Here, we show that, while the attentional set determines masked priming for color and orientation features, it does not fully determine priming based on the topological properties of stimuli. Specifically, across a series of different choice-RT tasks, we find that topological congruence between prime and probe stimuli affects RTs for the probes even when other stimulus information (e.g., color or orientation) is required for the response, whereas congruence priming effects of color or orientation occur only when these features are response relevant. Our results suggest that changes in topological properties take precedence over task-directed top-down attentional modulation in masked priming.

Priming of pop-out on multiple time scales during visual search

When target-color repeats in pop-out visual search performance is faster than otherwise. While various characteristics of such priming of pop-out (PoP) are well known, relatively little is known about the temporal character of the memory traces underlying the effect. Recent findings on the perception of ambiguous stimuli show that the percept at any given moment is affected by perception over a long period, as well as by immediately preceding percepts. Intrigued by the existence of various parallels between this perceptual priming phenomenon and PoP, we here investigate whether similar multiplicity in timescales is seen for PoP. We contrasted long-term PoP build-up of a particular target color against shorter-term build-up for a different color. The priming effects from the two colors indeed reflect memory traces at different timescales: long-term priming build-up results in a more gradual decay than brief buildup, which is followed by faster decay. This is clearly demonstrated in Experiment 2 where sustained repetition of one target color is followed by a few repetitions of a second color. Following such a sequence, priming is initially stronger for the second target color, which was primed most recently; however, as more time passes longer-term priming starts to dominate, resulting in better search performance for the first color later on. Our results suggest that priming effects in visual search contain both transient and more sustained components. Similarities between the time courses of attentional priming and perception of ambiguous stimuli are striking and suggest compelling avenues of further research into the relation between the two effects.