Differences In Selective Attention Research Articles

Selective Attention and Sensory Modality in Aging: Curses and Blessings.

The notion that selective attention is compromised in older adults as a result of impaired inhibitory control is well established. Yet it is primarily based on empirical findings covering the visual modality. Auditory and especially, cross-modal selective attention are remarkably underexposed in the literature on aging. In the past 5 years, we have attempted to fill these voids by investigating performance of younger and older adults on equivalent tasks covering all four combinations of visual or auditory target, and visual or auditory distractor information. In doing so, we have demonstrated that older adults are especially impaired in auditory selective attention with visual distraction. This pattern of results was not mirrored by the results from our psychophysiological studies, however, in which both enhancement of target processing and suppression of distractor processing appeared to be age equivalent. We currently conclude that: (1) age-related differences of selective attention are modality dependent; (2) age-related differences of selective attention are limited; and (3) it remains an open question whether modality-specific age differences in selective attention are due to impaired distractor inhibition, impaired target enhancement, or both. These conclusions put the longstanding inhibitory deficit hypothesis of aging in a new perspective.

Sex differences in the Simon task help to interpret sex differences in selective attention

In the last decade, a number of studies have reported sex differences in selective attention, but a unified explanation for these effects is still missing. This study aims to better understand these differences and put them in an evolutionary psychological context. 418 adult participants performed a computer-based Simon task, in which they responded to the direction of a left or right pointing arrow appearing left or right from a fixation point. Women were more strongly influenced by task-irrelevant spatial information than men (i.e., the Simon effect was larger in women, Cohen’s d = 0.39). Further, the analysis of sex differences in behavioral adjustment to errors revealed that women slow down more than men following mistakes (d = 0.53). Based on the combined results of previous studies and the current data, it is proposed that sex differences in selective attention are caused by underlying sex differences in core abilities, such as spatial or verbal cognition.

Age differences in the Attention Network Test: Evidence from behavior and event-related potentials

The Attention Network Test (ANT) is widely used to capture group and individual differences in selective attention. Prior behavioral studies with younger and older adults have yielded mixed findings with respect to age differences in three putative attention networks (alerting, orienting, and executive control). To overcome the limitations of behavioral data, the current study combined behavioral and electrophysiological measures. Twenty-four healthy younger adults (aged 18–29years) and 24 healthy older adults (aged 60–76years) completed the ANT while EEG data were recorded. Behaviorally, older adults showed reduced alerting, but did not differ from younger adults in orienting or executive control. Electrophysiological components related to alerting and orienting (P1, N1, and CNV) were similar in both age groups, whereas components related to executive control (N2 and P3) showed age-related differences. Together these results suggest that comparisons of network effects between age groups using behavioral data alone may not offer a complete picture of age differences in selective attention, especially for alerting and executive control networks.

Top-down modulation of visual and auditory cortical processing in aging

Age-related cognitive decline has been accounted for by an age-related deficit in top-down attentional modulation of sensory cortical processing. In light of recent behavioral findings showing that age-related differences in selective attention are modality dependent, our goal was to investigate the role of sensory modality in age-related differences in top-down modulation of sensory cortical processing. This question was addressed by testing younger and older individuals in several memory tasks while undergoing fMRI. Throughout these tasks, perceptual features were kept constant while attentional instructions were varied, allowing us to devise all combinations of relevant and irrelevant, visual and auditory information. We found no top-down modulation of auditory sensory cortical processing in either age group. In contrast, we found top-down modulation of visual cortical processing in both age groups, and this effect did not differ between age groups. That is, older adults enhanced cortical processing of relevant visual information and suppressed cortical processing of visual distractors during auditory attention to the same extent as younger adults. The present results indicate that older adults are capable of suppressing irrelevant visual information in the context of cross-modal auditory attention, and thereby challenge the view that age-related attentional and cognitive decline is due to a general deficits in the ability to suppress irrelevant information.

Relation of frontal N100 to psychopathy-related differences in selective attention

Research indicates that psychopathy may be characterized by early attentional abnormalities that undermine the processing of peripheral information during goal-directed activity (Baskin-Sommers & Newman, 2012). Past work has found that psychopathic individuals show reduced interference on the Box Stroop task, in which color names are spatially separated from (i.e., peripheral to) colored stimuli (Hiatt, Schmitt, & Newman, 2004). The present study sought to replicate and extend these findings. A priori predictions were that psychopathy scores would be inversely related to interference and that psychopathy-related differences in Box Stroop conflict processing would emerge at an early stage as measured by event-related potentials (ERP). Results supported both hypotheses. Moreover, the association between the early attention-related component (N100) and interference was moderated by level of psychopathy. These findings suggest that psychopathic individuals have less coordinated responses to conflict than healthy individuals, a conjecture that has implications for information integration and self-regulation.

Selective attention to emotion in the aging brain.

A growing body of research suggests that the ability to regulate emotion remains stable or improves across the adult life span. Socioemotional selectivity theory maintains that this pattern of findings reflects the prioritization of emotional goals. Given that goal-directed behavior requires attentional control, the present study was designed to investigate age differences in selective attention to emotional lexical stimuli under conditions of emotional interference. Both neural and behavioral measures were obtained during an experiment in which participants completed a flanker task that required them to make categorical judgments about emotional and nonemotional stimuli. Older adults showed interference in both the behavioral and neural measures on control trials but not on emotion trials. Although older adults typically show relatively high levels of interference and reduced cognitive control during nonemotional tasks, they appear to be able to successfully reduce interference during emotional tasks.

Individual Differences in Selective Attention to Information Graphics in Televised Sports

Despite the ubiquitous presence of information graphics in sport telecasts, little research has explored how at-home spectators allocate attention to them or individual differences in selective attention. This study demonstrates two viewer characteristics that impact attention to information graphics in two excerpts from the 2012 World Series. Eye-tracking data reveal that although viewers universally attend to these graphics upon onset, those with greater interest in sports and sports statistics exhibited greater cognitive processing of these elements as indexed by gaze duration. Differences in selective attention provide a framework for studying attention in new sport media high in visual complexity.

Aging and response interference across sensory modalities

Advancing age is associated with decrements in selective attention. It was recently hypothesized that age-related differences in selective attention depend on sensory modality. The goal of the present study was to investigate the role of sensory modality in age-related vulnerability to distraction, using a response interference task. To this end, 16 younger (mean age = 23.1years) and 24 older (mean age = 65.3years) adults performed four response interference tasks, involving all combinations of visual and auditory targets and distractors. The results showed that response interference effects differ across sensory modalities, but not across age groups. These results indicate that sensory modality plays an important role in vulnerability to distraction, but not in age-related distractibility by irrelevant spatial information.

Individual Differences in the Attentional Blink: The Temporal Profile of Blinkers and Non-Blinkers

BackgroundWhen two targets are presented in close temporal succession, the majority of people frequently fail to report the second target. This phenomenon, known as the ‘attentional blink’ (AB), has been a major topic in attention research for the past twenty years because it is informative about the rate at which stimuli can be encoded into consciously accessible representations. An aspect of the AB that has long been ignored, however, is individual differences.Methodology/Principal FindingsHere we compare a group of blinkers (who show an AB) and non-blinkers (who show little or no AB), and investigate the boundary conditions of the non-blinkers' remarkable ability. Second, we directly test the properties of temporal selection by analysing response errors, allowing us to uncover individual differences in suppression, delay, and diffusion of selective attention across time. Thirdly, we test the hypothesis that information concerning temporal order is compromised when an AB is somehow avoided. Surprisingly, compared to earlier studies, only a modest amount of suppression was found for blinkers. Non-blinkers showed no suppression, were more precise in selecting the second target, and made less order reversals than blinkers did. In contrast, non-blinkers made relatively more intrusions and showed a selection delay when the second target immediately followed the first target (at lag 1).Conclusion/SignificanceThe findings shed new light on the mechanisms that may underlie individual differences in selective attention. The notable ability of non-blinkers to accurately perceive targets presented in close temporal succession might be due to a relatively faster and more precise target selection process compared to large blinkers.

The role of consciousness in attentional control differences in trait anxiety

Trait anxiety has long been associated with impaired selective attention to task-irrelevant threat stimuli, both when threat is presented consciously and outside of awareness. However recent research has suggested broader deficits in selective attention, with poorer ability to ignore supraliminal non-emotional information in anxiety. Here, we investigated whether anxiety could equally be associated with poorer selective attention for non-emotional stimuli in a subliminal context. Participants performed a simple arrow discrimination task, where prior incompatible or compatible response primes were presented before targets either unmasked (supraliminal) or masked (subliminal). While distractor interference was evident in both conditions, trait anxiety was associated with increased task-irrelevant processing only in the supraliminal condition; group effects were eliminated when primes were masked. Our findings are in line with traditional accounts suggesting that differences in selective attention and cognitive control solely modulate conscious distractor processing.

Age-Related Changes in the Processing of To-be-Ignored Stimuli: Preserved Selective Attention Does Not Prevent Subsequent Allocation of Excessive Processing Resources (IN4-1.004)

Objective: To investigate age-related changes in attentional operations involved in the processing of to-be-ignored stimuli. Background A critical mechanism for conserving capacity-limited resources and efficiently carrying out task demands is to limit the allocation of resources to stimuli that are supposed to be ignored. Design/Methods: ERPs were measured in 12 young (mean age 23) and 15 old (mean age 74) well-matched adults during a color-selective attention task. Subjects responded to target letters in a specified color (Attend) while ignoring letters in a different color (Ignore). Results: There were minimal age-associated differences in selective attention (Attend-Ignore), as indexed by the size of the posterior Selection Negativity (SN) and anterior Selection positivity (SP). In stark contrast to their younger counterparts, old subject appropriated a similar amount of resources to targets under the Attend and Ignore conditions for operations involved with orienting and decision-making, as measured by the size of the P3a and P3b components. Old subjects demonstrated a decline of attentional control, as indexed by a smaller anterior N2 to target-like stimuli under Ignore. Old subjects also exhibited prolonged latencies of the SP, SN, P3a, and P3b components, suggestive of delays in carrying out pertinent operations. Prolongation of SN latency did not correlate with subsequent delays in P3 latency, but did predict larger P3 responses to targets under the Ignore condition. Conclusions: Despite the relative preservation of early selective attention, old subjects appropriated substantially more controlled processing resources in response to target-like stimuli under Ignore. Although inefficiencies in selective attention may undermine the quality of information available for subsequent operations, they do not fully account for the strikingly increased allocation of resources in response to to-be-ignored targets. One consequence of this age-related deficit is that older adults are at high risk for running out of processing resources to manage increased task demands. Supported by: R01 AGO17935. Disclosure: Dr. Alperin has nothing to disclose. Dr. Haring has nothing to disclose. Dr. Zhuravleva has nothing to disclose. Dr. Holcomb has nothing to disclose. Dr. Rentz has received personal compensation for activities with Elan Pharmaceuticals as a consultant. Dr. Daffner has nothing to disclose.

Psychopathy-related differences in selective attention are captured by an early event-related potential.

According to the response modulation model, the poorly regulated behavior of psychopathic individuals reflects a problem reallocating attention to process peripheral information while engaged in goal-directed behavior (Patterson & Newman, 1993). We evaluated this tenet using male prisoners and an early event-related potential component (P140) to index attentional processing. In all task conditions, participants viewed and categorized letter stimuli that could also be used to predict electric shocks. Instructions focused attention either on the threat-relevant dimension of the letters or an alternative, threat-irrelevant dimension. Offenders with high scores on Hare's (2003) Psychopathy Checklist-Revised displayed a larger P140 under alternative versus threat conditions. Beyond demonstrating psychopathy-related differences in early attention, these findings suggest that psychopathic individuals find it easier to ignore threat-related distractors when they are peripheral versus central to their goal-directed behavior.

The role of selective attention on academic foundations: A cognitive neuroscience perspective

To the extent that selective attention skills are relevant for academic foundations and amenable to training, they represent an important focus for the field of education. Here, drawing on research on the neurobiology of attention, we review hypothesized links between selective attention and processing across three domains important to early academic skills. First, we provide a brief review of the neural bases of selective attention, emphasizing the effects of selective attention on neural processing, as well as the neural systems important to deploying selective attention and managing response conflict. Second, we examine the developmental time course of selective attention. It is argued that developmental differences in selective attention are related to the neural systems important for deploying selective attention and managing response conflict. In contrast, once effectively deployed, selective attention acts through very similar neural mechanisms across ages. In the third section, we relate the processes of selective attention to three domains important to academic foundations: language, literacy, and mathematics. Fourth, drawing on recent literatures on the effects of video-game play and mind-brain training on selective attention, we discuss the possibility of training selective attention. The final section examines the application of these principles to educationally-focused attention-training programs for children.

Automatic Selective Attention as a Function of Sensory Modality in Aging

It was recently hypothesized that age-related differences in selective attention depend on sensory modality (Guerreiro, M. J. S., Murphy, D. R., & Van Gerven, P. W. M. (2010). The role of sensory modality in age-related distraction: A critical review and a renewed view. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 975-1022. doi:10.1037/a0020731). So far, this hypothesis has not been tested in automatic selective attention. The current study addressed this issue by investigating age-related differences in automatic spatial cueing effects (i.e., facilitation and inhibition of return [IOR]) across sensory modalities. Thirty younger (mean age = 22.4 years) and 25 older adults (mean age = 68.8 years) performed 4 left-right target localization tasks, involving all combinations of visual and auditory cues and targets. We used stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 100, 500, 1,000, and 1,500 ms between cue and target. The results showed facilitation (shorter reaction times with valid relative to invalid cues at shorter SOAs) in the unimodal auditory and in both cross-modal tasks but not in the unimodal visual task. In contrast, there was IOR (longer reaction times with valid relative to invalid cues at longer SOAs) in both unimodal tasks but not in either of the cross-modal tasks. Most important, these spatial cueing effects were independent of age. The results suggest that the modality hypothesis of age-related differences in selective attention does not extend into the realm of automatic selective attention.

Sex differences in the processing of flankers

The study of sex differences in cognition has often focused on differences in spatial processing. Recently, sex differences in selective attention have been observed by Bayliss, di Pellegrino, and Tipper (2005), showing that women are more influenced than men by irrelevant spatial cues. The current study elaborates on this finding and tests whether sex differences in the processing of irrelevant information also occur in a simpler task, in which there is no need to redirect visual attention and no need to remember multiple spatial stimulus-response associations. Here, attention is studied using a novel combination of a go/no-go task and a flanker task. A total of 80 neurotypical participants were studied, and it was found that responses in women were more strongly affected by flanker information than were responses in men. This suggests that these sex differences were not due to difficulties with spatial reorientation, or remembering spatial stimulus-response relationships. The findings are discussed in the context of the hunter-gatherer theory of sex differences.

Selective attention to emotion in the aging brain.

A growing body of research suggests that the ability to regulate emotion remains stable or improves across the adult life span. Socioemotional selectivity theory maintains that this pattern of findings reflects the prioritization of emotional goals. Given that goal-directed behavior requires attentional control, the present study was designed to investigate age differences in selective attention to emotional lexical stimuli under conditions of emotional interference. Both neural and behavioral measures were obtained during an experiment in which participants completed a flanker task that required them to make categorical judgments about emotional and nonemotional stimuli. Older adults showed interference in both the behavioral and neural measures on control trials but not on emotion trials. Although older adults typically show relatively high levels of interference and reduced cognitive control during nonemotional tasks, they appear to be able to successfully reduce interference during emotional tasks.

Paradoxical enhancement of choice reaction time performance in patients with major depression

The Cued Reinforcement Reaction Time (CRRT) task is a choice reaction time task in which rewards (points) are available if the subject responds quickly enough and are signalled with a certain probability by stimuli. Reaction times (RTs) are faster following stimuli predicting reward with a high probability than with a low probability. This RT difference is sensitive to manipulations and individual differences in the serotonin (5-HT) system, but the CRRT task performance has not yet been examined in patients with depression. We observed that patients performed better on the task than controls, as evidenced by a greater points score, a greater likelihood of reaching their reinforcement threshold and fewer errors. RT variability was reduced in the patients. No group differences in the effect of the conditioned stimuli on RTs were observed. Accounts of these surprising data are discussed, considering possible effects of antidepressant medication or task-dependent differences in selective attention. Regardless of precise mechanism, the results do indicate that depressed patients are not invariably impaired in motivational paradigms and that their RT performance in certain situations can be superior to that of controls.

EEG, biochemical and psychometric concomitants of individual differences in selective attention to masked emotional faces

Previous psychometric studies using a visual search task suggested that interpersonal fear in individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) may be processed by unconscious preattentive mechanisms. However, little is known about relationships between social anxiety and preattentive emotional responses. We explored whether social anxiety is associated with preattentive emotional responses to facial expression. Groups with high and low social anxiety were selected from 125 healthy volunteers according to scores on the Social Phobia Inventory. Fearful and happy faces were presented subliminally using backward masking, with skin conductance responses (SCRs) being measured as an autonomic index of emotional responses. SCRs to these two facial expressions were compared between groups. The group with high social anxiety showed significantly greater differences in SCRs between masked fearful and happy faces than the group with low social anxiety. Social anxiety was associated with unconscious autonomic responses to fearful faces. A preattentive interpersonal threat evaluation system may be an important factor in SAD.

Evidence for gender differences in visual selective attention

Selective attention is considered a central component of cognitive functioning. While a number of studies have demonstrated gender differences in cognitive tasks, there has been little research conducted on gender differences in selective attention. There is limited empirical evidence that indicates males and females may differ in selective attention. To explore this issue we present results from two experiments using a basic Posner cueing paradigm in which females show larger validity effects in endogenously cued tasks, but not with a peripheral cue or exogenous cue. Specifically, we found that while females show costs from an invalid cue relative to a no-cue control condition, males showed a benefit to invalid cues compared to no-cue control conditions. This empirical finding has important implications for future studies using the Posner cueing paradigm. In addition, the possible contribute of gender differences in selective attention to other cognitive gender differences is explored.

Behavioral and Electrophysiological Markers of Selective Attention in Children of Parents with a History of Depression

Individual differences in selective attention may play a role in moderating psychological vulnerabilities by shaping the ability to self-regulate emotion. Children of parents with childhood-onset depression (COD) are at increased risk for socioemotional difficulties. This study examined potential differences in selective attention as a function of parental COD. Children (n = 33, ages 6 to 10) participated in a Posner cued attention task under neutral and affective conditions. Behavioral (reaction time [RT]; errors) and event-related potential (ERP) data were collected during the task. Performance in the Posner task under the affective condition was marked by significant decreases in RTs, an increase in errors, and an increased validity effect (difference in RTs to the cued vs. uncued trials) relative to performance under neutral conditions. Children of parents with COD were slower in their response rates compared with control children. The at-risk children also showed larger P3 and slow wave amplitudes in anterior scalp sites, particularly during the affective Posner task. These data suggest that there are subtle deficits in selective attention among the offspring of individuals with COD, requiring that they engage more processing resources to perform effectively. This may affect their ability to adequately regulate emotion under stress.