Individual Differences In Visual Attention Research Articles

Genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in visual attention and oculomotor control in early infancy.

Infants differ in their level of eye movement control, which at the extreme could be linked to autism. We assessed eye movements in 450 twins (225 pairs, 57% monozygotic, 46% female, aged 5-6 months) using the gap-overlap eye-tracking task. Shorter latency in the gap condition was associated with having more parent-rated autistic traits at 2 years. Latency across the task's three conditions was primarily explained by one highly heritable latent factor likely representing individual differences in basic oculomotor efficiency and/or in visual information processing. Additionally, disengagement of attention was linked to unique genetic factors, suggesting that genetic factors involved in visual attention are different from those involved in basic visual information processing and oculomotor efficiency.

When are Difficulties Desirable for Children? First Steps Toward a Developmental and Individual Differences Account of the Spacing Effect

The spacing effect is one of the most robust and replicable phenomena in psychological science, and holds promise for improving children's learning outcomes in educational settings. However, there is a striking limitation in the literature: very few studies have been conducted with young children (0–5-year-olds). Moreover, most studies examine children's learning on the group level, whereas early curricula typically focus on both group and individual outcomes. We predict that developmental and individual differences in visual attention, memory, prior knowledge, and metamemory will affect children's learning on massed and spaced schedules. Thus, we argue that the next critical step in research on the spacing effect is to develop a developmental and individual differences account. Indeed, this account will address limitations in theory and barriers in implementing the spacing effect in early educational settings.

Individual differences in visual attention: a short, reliable, open source, and multilingual test of multiple object tracking in PsychoPy

Individual differences in attentional abilities provide an interesting approach in studying visual attention as well as the relation of attention to other psychometric measures. However, recent research has demonstrated that many tasks from experimental research are not suitable for individual differences research, as they fail to capture these differences reliably. Here, we provide a test for individual differences in visual attention which relies on the multiple object tracking task (MOT). This test captures individual differences reliably in 6 to 15 min. Within the task, the participants have to maintain a set of targets (among identical distractors) across an interval of object motion. It captures the efficiency of attentional deployment. Importantly, this test was explicitly designed and tested for reliability under conditions that match those of most laboratory research (restricted sample of students, approximately n = 50). The test is free to use and runs fully under open-source software. In order to facilitate the application of the test, we have translated it into 16 common languages (Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish). The test can be downloaded at https://osf.io/qy6nb/ . We hope that this MOT test supports researchers whose field of study requires capturing individual differences in visual attention reliably.

Individual differences in visual attention: A short, reliable, open-source, and multilingual test of multiple object tracking in PsychoPy.

Individual differences in attentional abilities provide an interesting approach in studying visual attention as well as the relation of attention to other psychometric measures. However, recent research has demonstrated that many tasks from experimental research are not suitable for individual differences research, as they fail to capture these differences reliably. Here, we provide a test for individual differences in visual attention which relies on the multiple object tracking task (MOT). This test captures individual differences reliably in 6 to 15 min. Within the task, the participants have to maintain a set of targets (among identical distractors) across an interval of object motion. It captures the efficiency of attentional deployment. Importantly, this test was explicitly designed and tested for reliability under conditions that match those of most laboratory research (restricted sample of students, approximately n = 50). The test is free to use and runs fully under open-source software. In order to facilitate the application of the test, we have translated it into 16 common languages (Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish). The test can be downloaded at https://osf.io/qy6nb/ . We hope that this MOT test supports researchers whose field of study requires capturing individual differences in visual attention reliably.

Individual differences in visual attention and self-regulation: A multimethod longitudinal study from infancy to toddlerhood

Given the importance of self-regulation for a broad range of developmental outcomes, identifying reliable precursors of self-regulation early in development is important for early prevention of developmental problems. The aim of this study was to examine whether three visual attention measures (fixation duration, variation in fixation duration, and disengagement) in infancy (9.10–11.43 months of age) predicted effortful control and compliance in toddlerhood (26.71–31.80 months). The sample consisted of 74 children (50% boys). In infancy, two eye-tracking tasks were conducted: a visual search task to assess fixation duration and variation in fixation duration (n = 58) and the gap–overlap task to assess disengagement (n = 49). In toddlerhood, children’s effortful control (n = 65) and compliance (n = 65) were assessed by parent reports and observed during a delay of gratification task and a cleanup session together with the parents, respectively. Using full information maximum likelihood to account for missing data, multiple regression analyses revealed that, when all three measures of visual attention were taken into account, longer fixations and less variation in fixation duration in infancy predicted better effortful control. Disengagement did not predict effortful control. Compliance in toddlerhood was not predicted by any of the visual attention measures. These findings may indicate that visual attentional measures in infancy predict relatively independent forms of self-regulation in toddlerhood. Future studies are necessary to elucidate the mechanisms that underlie the association between (variation in) fixation duration in infancy and effortful control in toddlerhood.

Operationalizing atypical gaze in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders: a cohesion-based approach

BackgroundMultiple eye-tracking studies have highlighted the “atypical” nature of social attention in autism. However, it is unclear how “atypical” or “typical” should be quantified.MethodsWe developed a method for identifying moments when members of a group looked at similar places (High-Cohesion Time Frames; HCTFs). We defined typicality as the proximity of gaze points to typically developing (TD) gaze points during TD HCTFs. Comparing toddlers with ASD (n = 112) to developmentally delayed (DD, n = 36) and TD (n = 163) toddlers during a video with Dyadic Bid, Sandwich-Making, Joint Attention, and Animated Toys conditions, we examined (a) individual typicality scores, (b) the relationship between typicality and symptom severity, and (c) HCTF distributions associated with each diagnostic group.ResultsThe ASD group had lower gaze typicality scores compared to the TD and DD groups in the Dyadic Bid and Sandwich-Making conditions but not during Animated Toys. The DD and TD groups did not differ in any condition. Correlational analyses indicated that higher typicality scores were associated with increased looking at pre-planned locations of the scene indexed by each experimental condition. In the ASD group, lower gaze typicality was associated with more severe autism symptoms. Examining ASD HCTFs, the gaze of toddlers with ASD was least cohesive during Dyadic Bid and most cohesive during Animated Toys.ConclusionIn contrast to non-ASD groups, toddlers with ASD show high cohesion during salient nonsocial events, suggesting that consistency in looking strategies may depend more on perceptual features. These findings are consequential for understanding individual differences in visual attention in ASD and for the design of more sensitive biomarker tasks for stratification, between-group differentiation, and measuring response to treatment.

Cultural differences in attention: Eye movement evidence from a comparative visual search task.

Individual differences in visual attention have been linked to thinking style: analytic thinking (common in individualistic cultures) is thought to promote attention to detail and focus on the most important part of a scene, whereas holistic thinking (common in collectivist cultures) promotes attention to the global structure of a scene and the relationship between its parts. However, this theory is primarily based on relatively simple judgement tasks. We compared groups from Great Britain (an individualist culture) and Saudi Arabia (a collectivist culture) on a more complex comparative visual search task, using simple natural scenes. A higher overall number of fixations for Saudi participants, along with longer search times, indicated less efficient search behaviour than British participants. Furthermore, intra-group comparisons of scan-path for Saudi participants revealed less similarity than within the British group. Together, these findings suggest that there is a positive relationship between an analytic cognitive style and controlled attention.

Reappraisal and Distraction Emotion Regulation Strategies Are Associated with Distinct Patterns of Visual Attention and Differing Levels of Cognitive Demand.

Multiple emotion regulation strategies have been identified and found to differ in their effectiveness at decreasing negative emotions. One reason for this might be that individual strategies are associated with differing levels of cognitive demand and require distinct patterns of visual attention to achieve their effects. In the current study, we tested this hypothesis in a sample of psychiatrically healthy participants (n = 25) who attempted to down-regulate negative emotion to photographs from the International Affective Picture System using cognitive reappraisal or distraction. Eye movements, pupil dilation, and subjective reports of negative emotionality were obtained for reappraisal, distraction, unpleasant passive viewing, and neutral passive viewing conditions. Behavioral results indicated that reappraisal and distraction successfully decreased self-reported negative affect relative to unpleasant passive viewing. Successful down regulation of negative affect was associated with different patterns of visual attention across regulation strategies. During reappraisal, there was an initial increase in dwell time to arousing scene regions and a subsequent shift away from these regions during later portions of the trial, whereas distraction was associated with reduced total dwell time to arousing interest areas throughout the entire stimulus presentation. Pupil dilation was greater for reappraisal than distraction or unpleasant passive viewing, suggesting that reappraisal may recruit more effortful cognitive control processes. Furthermore, greater decreases in self-reported negative emotion were associated with a lower proportion of dwell time within arousing areas of interest. These findings suggest that different emotion regulation strategies necessitate different patterns of visual attention to be effective and that individual differences in visual attention predict the extent to which individuals can successfully decrease negative emotion using reappraisal and distraction.

Do individual differences in visual attention to CATA questions affect sensory product characterization? A case study with plain crackers

CATA questions are gaining prominence as a quick and easy method for obtaining consumer-derived sensory product characterizations. The present research contributes further methodological understanding by exploring individual differences in visual attention to CATA questions and investigating the relationship between visual attention throughout the task and consumers’ ability to discriminate among samples. A consumer study was carried out in which 113 participants were asked to evaluate six plain crackers and to answer a check-all-that-apply question composed of 20 sensory terms, which was presented on a computer screen. While consumers completed the CATA tasks their eye movements were recorded using a remote eye-tracker. Considerable heterogeneity among participants existed with regard to the number of fixations made when completing the CATA questions. Three groups of consumers who differed in their degree of visual processing (more thorough to less thorough) were identified. These groups also differed in their responses to the CATA question. Consumers who performed the most thorough visual processing of the CATA question, used, on average, a significantly larger number of CATA terms to describe the products than consumers in the other two groups. Meanwhile, consumers who engaged in the least detailed visual processing showed lesser discriminative ability. However, sensory spaces from the three consumer groups were highly similar, suggesting that consumers identified the same similarities and differences among samples despite differing in the degree of visual attention directed to the CATA question.

Using eye tracking to test for individual differences in attention to attractive faces.

We assessed individual differences in visual attention toward faces in relation to their attractiveness via saccadic reaction times. Motivated by the aim to understand individual differences in attention to faces, we tested three hypotheses: (a) Attractive faces hold or capture attention more effectively than less attractive faces; (b) men show a stronger bias toward attractive opposite-sex faces than women; and (c) blue-eyed men show a stronger bias toward blue-eyed than brown-eyed feminine faces. The latter test was included because prior research suggested a high effect size. Our data supported hypotheses (a) and (b) but not (c). By conducting separate tests for disengagement of attention and attention capture, we found that individual differences exist at distinct stages of attentional processing but these differences are of varying robustness and importance. In our conclusion, we also advocate the use of linear mixed effects models as the most appropriate statistical approach for studying inter-individual differences in visual attention with naturalistic stimuli.

Brain responses and looking behavior during audiovisual speech integration in infants predict auditory speech comprehension in the second year of life

The use of visual cues during the processing of audiovisual (AV) speech is known to be less efficient in children and adults with language difficulties and difficulties are known to be more prevalent in children from low-income populations. In the present study, we followed an economically diverse group of thirty-seven infants longitudinally from 6–9 months to 14–16 months of age. We used eye-tracking to examine whether individual differences in visual attention during AV processing of speech in 6–9 month old infants, particularly when processing congruent and incongruent auditory and visual speech cues, might be indicative of their later language development. Twenty-two of these 6–9 month old infants also participated in an event-related potential (ERP) AV task within the same experimental session. Language development was then followed-up at the age of 14–16 months, using two measures of language development, the Preschool Language Scale and the Oxford Communicative Development Inventory. The results show that those infants who were less efficient in auditory speech processing at the age of 6–9 months had lower receptive language scores at 14–16 months. A correlational analysis revealed that the pattern of face scanning and ERP responses to audiovisually incongruent stimuli at 6–9 months were both significantly associated with language development at 14–16 months. These findings add to the understanding of individual differences in neural signatures of AV processing and associated looking behavior in infants.

Neural Correlates of Individual Differences in Infant Visual Attention and Recognition Memory.

Past studies have identified individual differences in infant visual attention based upon peak look duration during initial exposure to a stimulus. Colombo and colleagues (e.g., Colombo & Mitchell, 1990) found that infants that demonstrate brief visual fixations (i.e., short lookers) during familiarization are more likely to demonstrate evidence of recognition memory during subsequent stimulus exposure than infants that demonstrate long visual fixations (i.e., long lookers). The current study utilized event-related potentials to examine possible neural mechanisms associated with individual differences in visual attention and recognition memory for 6- and 7.5-month-old infants. Short- and long-looking infants viewed images of familiar and novel objects during ERP testing. There was a stimulus type by looker type interaction at temporal and frontal electrodes on the late slow wave (LSW). Short lookers demonstrated a LSW that was significantly greater in amplitude in response to novel stimulus presentations. No significant differences in LSW amplitude were found based on stimulus type for long lookers. These results indicate deeper processing and recognition memory of the familiar stimulus for short lookers.

Visual attention: Individual differences in training and predicting complex task performance

Individual differences in visual attention were investigated as predictors of performance on Space Fortress, a video game-like simulator of dynamic flight performance. One hundred and eight paid students completed a computer administered visual attention test and 10 hrs of Space Fortress in one of five randomly assigned training protocols. Attention scores predicted performance before and after training. Assignment into training protocol was also significantly related to performance but training failed to eliminate performance differences between high and low visual attenders. Although training accounted for more variance, attention contributed significant incremental validity after training had been taken into account. The results support the assumption that performance on Space Fortress is determined in part by the skill of attention. This assumption is critical in the use of Space Fortress for pedagogical research. The stability of the attention-performance relationship is also congruous with predictions for tasks that require substantial controlled processing.