Attraction Of Attention Research Articles

Experimental effects and individual differences in linear mixed models: estimating the relationship between spatial, object, and attraction effects in visual attention

Linear mixed models (LMMs) provide a still underused methodological perspective on combining experimental and individual-differences research. Here we illustrate this approach with two-rectangle cueing in visual attention (Egly et al., 1994). We replicated previous experimental cue-validity effects relating to a spatial shift of attention within an object (spatial effect), to attention switch between objects (object effect), and to the attraction of attention toward the display centroid (attraction effect), also taking into account the design-inherent imbalance of valid and other trials. We simultaneously estimated variance/covariance components of subject-related random effects for these spatial, object, and attraction effects in addition to their mean reaction times (RTs). The spatial effect showed a strong positive correlation with mean RT and a strong negative correlation with the attraction effect. The analysis of individual differences suggests that slow subjects engage attention more strongly at the cued location than fast subjects. We compare this joint LMM analysis of experimental effects and associated subject-related variances and correlations with two frequently used alternative statistical procedures.

The Prioritization of Feature Singletons in the Change Detection Paradigm

Six experiments are reported investigating whether a discontinuity in colour can accrue attentional priority. In addition to a standard visual search paradigm, we examined the degree to which colour singletons and nonsingletons are susceptible to change blindness. Results showed that changes occurring at colour singletons were relatively more resistant to change blindness. Although suggestive of bottom-up marshalling of attention, no prioritization of the singleton occurred when the most stringent test of stimulus-driven attentional attraction was employed, that is, when attending to the singleton was detrimental to the task. We conclude that a discontinuity in colour will attract attention unless an attentional set is contrary to singletons.

Does training under consistent mapping conditions lead to automatic attention attraction to targets in search tasks?

Schneider and Shiffrin (1977) proposed that training under consistent stimulus-response mapping (CM) leads to automatic target detection in search tasks. Other theories, such as Treisman and Gelade's (1980) feature integration theory, consider target-distractor discriminability as the main determinant of search performance. The first two experiments pit these two principles against each other. The results show that CM training is neither necessary nor sufficient to achieve optimal search performance. Two other experiments examine whether CM trained targets, presented as distractors in unattended display locations, attract attention away from current targets. The results are again found to vary with target-distractor similarity. Overall, the present study strongly suggests that CM training does not invariably lead to automatic attention attraction in search tasks.

Transient spatial attention and the perceived duration of brief visual events

This study was designed to explore the effects of transient attention—the stimulus-driven component of spatial attention—on the perceived duration of a brief visual event. Observers had to compare the duration of two disks presented successively within a single trial. The disks’ location and duration varied independently. One of these disks, the “attended disk”, was preceded by an attentional cue indicating the disk's location, attracting transient attention in advanced to the disk location. This attentional cue was either a typical onset cue (Experiments 1, 2, and 4) or a singleton cue (Experiment 3) that minimized the differences between the cues. The other disk, the “neutral disk”, was cued with a neutral cue that did not convey information regarding the disk location. We found that the attraction of transient attention to the location of the attended disk prolonged its perceived duration, but only when compared to brief nonattend stimuli.

I Can't Take My Eyes Off of It – Attention Attraction Effects of Implementation Intentions

Implementation intentions (“If situation X is encountered, I will perform behavior Y”) have been shown to improve goal attainment, relative to mere goal intentions, through automating action control. So far, they have only been examined with regard to three features of automaticity without testing the uncontrollability of implementation intention effects. In two studies on the impact of implementation intentions on visual attention, support was found for the uncontrollability of their effects. Implementation intentions attracted attention (i.e., a situational cue X disrupted attention from a focal task) even during the pursuit of different goals, more than goal intentions. In addition, the regulation of the action control through implementation intentions in response to these attention attraction effects was examined in a subsequent task. Improved performance co–occurred with attention attraction, indicating that no disengagement from the implementation intention took place. Implications for the applicati...

Attraction and distraction of attention with roadside advertisements

The optimum positioning of roadside advertisements is recognized by the industry as an important factor in attracting the attention of passing drivers. Less acknowledged is the possibility that the location of an advertisement may distract attention from vital driving-related information. This study compared street-level advertisements (SLAs; predominantly bus shelters) with raised-level advertisements (RLAs) of the same size that were suspended 3 m above the ground, on their ability to attract attention under different task conditions. Participants were split into two groups and watched video clips of driving, rating them for hazardousness while their eye movements were recorded. One of the groups was additionally primed to attend to advertisements. SLAs received the most fixations when participants were solely looking for hazards, and the fewest fixations when primed to look for advertisements. Though SLAs also had longer fixations than the RLAs, they were more poorly recognized in a subsequent memory test. We conclude that SLAs attract and hold attention at inappropriate times compared to raised-level advertisements.

Does one's name attract visual attention?

Does one's name attract visual attention? To answer this question, we conducted four experiments. Experiment 1 adopted the method of a previous study (Bundesen, Kyllingsbæk, Houmann, & Jensen, 1997), but used Japanese names; the results of this experiment replicated the lack of evidence for attentional attraction by the observer's name. Experiments 2 and 3 tested two arguments put forward by Bundesen et al. (1997) to explain this null effect of observer's name on attentional attraction. The results showed that neither efficient target selection by colour nor the number of target characters could explain the null effect. Alternatively, we proposed that the observer's set plays a critical role in the attentional attraction of observer's name. Experiments 4 and 5 tested this idea by manipulating the observer's set; the results showed that when the observer's set matches the target defining feature, the observer's name does capture attention. These five experiments suggest that attentional attraction by an observer's name depends on the relationship between the observer's set and task.

Influence of Affective Meaning on Memory for Contextual Information.

In 4 experiments, the authors investigated the influence of the affective meaning of words on memory for 2 kinds of contextual features that differ in the amount of effortful processes they require to be encoded in memory (i.e., color and spatial location). The main results showed that memory for color, in which words were typed, was better for emotional than for neutral words, but only when color information was learned incidentally. In contrast, spatial location of the words was better remembered for emotional than for neutral words whatever the encoding conditions (intentional vs. incidental). It is suggested that the influence of affective meaning on context memory may involve an automatic attraction of attention to contextual features associated with emotional words.

Attention and the evolution of intentional communication

Intentional communication is perceptually based and about attentional objects. Three attention mechanisms are distinguished: scanning, attention attraction, and attention-focusing. Attention-focusing directs the subject towards attentional objects. Attention-focusing is goal-governed (controlled by stimulus) or goal-intended (under the control of the subject). Attentional objects are perceptually categorised functional entities that emerge in the interaction between subjects and environment. Joint attention allows for focusing on the same attentional object simultaneously (mutual object-focused attention), provided that the subjects have focused on each other beforehand (subject-subject attention). It results in intentional communication if the subjects attend to each other as subjects (i) capable of attending, and (ii) attending in a goal-intended way. Intentional communication is fundamentally imperative and adapted to action.

Negative priming for spatial location?

The term negative priming has been used to describe the deleterious consequences for performance when the current target shares properties with an ignored distractor from the previous trial. Location-based negative priming was first reported by Tipper, Brehaut, and Driver (1990) who used a prime-probe procedure wherein the task was to localize targets defined by their identity (shape). Design imbalances in this seminal study, and others, are illustrated and it is indicated how these might have contaminated the reported effects. The findings, from three experiments using an unbiased design, suggest that negative priming in the spatial location procedure may be more closely related to inhibition of return (IOR), or to the automatic attraction of attention by new objects, than to the concepts of distractor inhibition, episodic retrieval, and feature mismatch, which have traditionally been used to explain negative priming for spatial location.

Automatic attraction of attention to former targets in visual displays of letters.

Shiffrin and Schneider (1977, Experiment 4d) reported that after consistent training in search for particular alphanumeric characters, presentation of one of these characters (former targets) as a distractor impeded detection of simultaneously presented current targets. Even if presented in an irrelevant display location, the former target appeared to attract attention. Here, we analyze weaknesses in the design of Experiment 4d and report four follow-up experiments ranging from a fairly close replication of the original multiframe experiment to a rather conventional single-frame search study. In each experiment, presentation of former targets consistently impeded detection of simultaneously presented current targets. The results suggest that automatic attention attraction to individual alphanumeric characters develops not only in the special experimental paradigm used by Shiffrin and Schneider, but also in standard visual search tasks. The fact that attention appeared to be attracted by shapes as complex as individual letters supports the assumption that simultaneously presented visual stimuli can be compared in parallel against memory representations of alphanumeric characters.

Latent Inhibition as a Function of Modulation of Attention to the Preexposed Irrelevant Stimulus

Two experiments were conducted to test predictions of Conditioned Attention Theory (CAT; Lubow, 1989) in regard to latent inhibition (LI) in humans. In Experiment 1, LI was assessed as a function of relative positions of the preexposed stimulus and masking task stimulus (peripheral vs central). In Experiment 2, LI was assessed as a function of attention–attraction to the preexposed stimulus (no-attraction vs attraction). LI was obtained when attention to the preexposed stimulus was allowed to decline (Experiment 1, peripheral condition; Experiment 2, no-attraction condition), but was precluded when attention to the preexposed stimulus was either maintained or reevoked (Experiment 1, central condition; Experiment 2, attraction condition). The conditions for maintaining and disrupting LI appear to be similar in animals and humans. Implications for understanding attenuated LI in schizophrenics are discussed.

The representation of visual salience in monkey parietal cortex.

When natural scenes are viewed, a multitude of objects that are stable in their environments are brought in and out of view by eye movements. The posterior parietal cortex is crucial for the analysis of space, visual attention and movement. Neurons in one of its subdivisions, the lateral intraparietal area (LIP), have visual responses to stimuli appearing abruptly at particular retinal locations (their receptive fields). We have tested the responses of LIP neurons to stimuli that entered their receptive field by saccades. Neurons had little or no response to stimuli brought into their receptive field by saccades, unless the stimuli were behaviourally significant. We established behavioural significance in two ways: either by making a stable stimulus task-relevant, or by taking advantage of the attentional attraction of an abruptly appearing stimulus. Our results show that under ordinary circumstances the entire visual world is only weakly represented in LIP. The visual representation in LIP is sparse, with only the most salient or behaviourally relevant objects being strongly represented.

The relationship between visuospatial and representational neglect

Using a quantitative measure, we analyzed the relationship between visuospatial and representational neglect in right- and left-brain-damaged patients and found signs of representational neglect only in right-brain-damaged patients. Although representational neglect was always associated with visuospatial neglect, suggesting that the two forms share a common underlying mechanism, the most frequent finding in right-brain--damaged patients was that of visuospatial neglect in isolation. A strong influence of the phenomenon of attentional attraction toward space ipsilateral to the lesion in visuospatial, as opposed to imaginal, tasks can account for this finding.

A Process Scale for Impact-Promoting Activities

An Impact Factors Process Scale (IFPS) was developed to assess impact-promoting activities in directive therapy. The IFPS focuses on three major therapist activities: (1) the creation of special, surprising, and arousing events; (2) the attraction of attention; and (3) the mobilization of commitment and effort. The IFPS was shown to be consistent and reliable. It successfully ranked the level of directiveness of different therapeutic approaches, displayed a session's climax (or its absence), and provided a profile of the therapist's impact-promoting activities in the session.

On the orienting value of attitudes: Attitude accessibility as a determinant of an object's attraction of visual attention.

On the orienting value of attitudes: Attitude accessibility as a determinant of an object's attraction of visual attention.

On the orienting value of attitudes: attitude accessibility as a determinant of an object's attraction of visual attention.

Four experiments tested the hypothesis that objects toward which individuals hold attitudes that are highly accessible from memory (i.e., attitude-evoking objects) are more likely to attract attention when presented in a visual display than objects involving less accessible attitudes. In Experiments 1 and 2, Ss were more likely to notice and report such attitude-evoking objects. Experiment 3 yielded evidence of incidental attention; Ss noticed attitude-evoking objects even when the task made it beneficial to ignore the objects. Experiment 4 demonstrated that inclusion of attitude-evoking objects as distractor items interfered with Ss' performance of a visual search task. Apparently, attitude-evoking stimuli attract attention automatically. Thus, accessible attitudes provide the functional benefit of orienting an individual's visual attention toward objects with potential hedonic consequences.

Automatization and Training in Visual Search

In several search tasks, the amount of practice on particular combinations of targets and distractors was equated in varied-mapping (VM) and consistent-mapping (CM) conditions. The results indicate the importance of distinguishing between memory and visual search tasks, and implicate a number of factors that play important roles in visual search and its learning. Visual search was studied in Experiment 1. VM and CM performance were almost equal, and slope reductions occurred during practice for both, suggesting the learning of efficient attentive search based on features, and no important role for automatic attention attraction. However, positive transfer effects occurred when previous CM targets were re-paired with previous CM distractors, even though these targets and distractors had not been trained together. Also, the introduction of a demanding simultaneous task produced advantages of CM over VM. These latter two results demonstrated the operation of automatic attention attraction. Visual search was further studied in Experiment 2, using novel characters for which feature overlap and similarity were controlled. The design and many of the findings paralleled Experiment 1. In addition, enormous search improvement was seen over 35 sessions of training, suggesting the operation of perceptual unitization for the novel characters. Experiment 3 showed a large, persistent advantage for CM over VM performance in memory search, even when practice on particular combinations of targets and distractors was equated in the two training conditions. A multifactor theory of automatization and attention is put forth to account for these findings and others in the literature.

Exogenous and endogenous control of attention: The effect of visual onsets and offsets

Two experiments were carried out to investigate the relation between exogenous and endogenous control of visual attention. Subjects searched for a target letter among three nontarget letters that were positioned on an imaginary circle around a fixation point. At different cue-display intervals, a centrally located arrowhead cue reliably indicated the location of the target letter. At different SOAs, a peripheral line segment near one of the letters was either abruptly switched on (Experiment 1) or abruptly switched off (Experiment 2). Presenting the central arrowhead after display onset prevents attention from being focused in advance on the critical location. In this unfocused attentional state, both onset and offset transients attracted attention. When the central arrowhead was available in advance, the focusing of attention prior to display onset precluded attention attraction to the location of the onset or offset transient. Contrary to an offset transient, an onset transient presented at the attended location disrupted performance, indicating that an onset within the spotlight of attention attracts attention. The results are reconciled by means of the zoom-lens theory of attention, suggesting that outside the focus of attention, abrupt transients are not capable of attracting attention. Since the size of the zoom lens is under voluntary control, it can be argued that transients do not fulfill the intentionality criterion of automaticity.

Classical conditioning and attentional bias

The present study was designed to test whether an attentional bias can arise from aversive classical conditioning. Using a differential conditioning paradigm in which slides of angry faces served as conditioned stimuli (CS+/CS-) and electric shock served as unconditioned stimulus (UCS), skin conductance responses (SCRs) of normal subjects ( N = 20) were recorded. The effectiveness of the conditioning procedure was proved by differential SCRs to CS+ and CS- slides during the later acquisition trials. During a subsequent extinction phase, sets of three numbers were superimposed on CS+ and CS- slides. Subjects were asked to add up these numbers as quickly as possible and to vocalize the results. Vocalization latencies as indexed by chin EMG activity were significantly longer with CS+ than with CS- trials. This result is explained in terms of the attention attracting properties that the CS+ acquires as a result of its pairing with the UCS. It is argued that these properties compete with the attentional resources that are needed for an ongoing task (i.e., addition task). The data suggest that a learning approach to the origins of attentional biases in anxious subjects might be fruitful.