Influence Of Selective Attention Research Articles

Selective attention sharpens population receptive fields in human auditory cortex.

Selective attention enables the preferential processing of relevant stimulus aspects. Invasive animal studies have shown that attending a sound feature rapidly modifies neuronal tuning throughout the auditory cortex. Human neuroimaging studies have reported enhanced auditory cortical responses with selective attention. To date, it remains unclear how the results obtained with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans relate to the electrophysiological findings in animal models. Here we aim to narrow the gap between animal and human research by combining a selective attention task similar in design to those used in animal electrophysiology with high spatial resolution ultra-high field fMRI at 7Tesla. Specifically, human participants perform a detection task, whereas the probability of target occurrence varies with sound frequency. Contrary to previous fMRI studies, we show that selective attention resulted in population receptive field sharpening, and consequently reduced responses, at the attended sound frequencies. The difference between our results to those of previous fMRI studies supports the notion that the influence of selective attention on auditory cortex is diverse and may depend on context, stimulus, and task.

Endogenous attention modulates the temporal window of integration.

Constructing useful representations of our visual environment requires the ability to selectively pay attention to particular locations at specific moments. Whilst there has been much investigation on the influence of selective attention on spatial discrimination, less is known about its influence on temporal discrimination. In particular, little is known about how endogenous attention influences two fundamental and opposing temporal processes: segregation - the parsing of the visual scene over time into separate features, and integration - the binding together of related elements. In four experiments, we tested how endogenous cueing to a location influences each of these opposing processes. Results demonstrate a strong cueing effect on both segregation and integration. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that endogenous attention can influence both of these opposing processes in a flexible manner. The finding has implications for arbitrating between accounts of the multiple modulatory mechanisms comprising selective attention.

The influence of attention and reward on the learning of stimulus-response associations

We can learn new tasks by listening to a teacher, but we can also learn by trial-and-error. Here, we investigate the factors that determine how participants learn new stimulus-response mappings by trial-and-error. Does learning in human observers comply with reinforcement learning theories, which describe how subjects learn from rewards and punishments? If yes, what is the influence of selective attention in the learning process? We developed a novel redundant-relevant learning paradigm to examine the conjoint influence of attention and reward feedback. We found that subjects only learned stimulus-response mappings for attended shapes, even when unattended shapes were equally informative. Reward magnitude also influenced learning, an effect that was stronger for attended than for non-attended shapes and that carried over to a subsequent visual search task. Our results provide insights into how attention and reward jointly determine how we learn. They support the powerful learning rules that capitalize on the conjoint influence of these two factors on neuronal plasticity.

Influence of selective attention on implicit learning with auditory stimuli

Influence of selective attention on implicit learning with auditory stimuli

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: FIRING UP YOUR NEURONS OF CHOICE

Chris Janiszewski, Andrew Kuo, and Nader T Tavassoli. ‘The Influence of Selective Attention and Inattention to Products on Subsequent Choice.’Journal of Consumer Research.

The Influence of Selective Attention and Inattention to Products on Subsequent Choice

A fundamental assumption of choice models is that products are valued for the benefits they provide. The only non-benefit-based source of preference is the processing fluency (e.g., ease of perceiving, encoding, comprehending, or retrieving information) that results from prior exposure to the product. This research documents an additional source of non-benefit-based “preference formation.” Repeatedly allocating attention to a product (selective attention) and away from other products (inattention) subsequently influences choices between these products and competing products. Five experiments show that prior selective attention (inattention) to a product increases the likelihood the product will be selected (rejected) in a subsequent choice. Demonstrating that prior acts of attention can influence subsequent choices has implications for any visually complex environment in which marketers communicate about a brand (e.g., banner advertising, packaging). The results also speak to how stimulus-based choices can have enduring consequences.

Interactions between Visual Attention and Episodic Retrieval: Dissociable Contributions of Parietal Regions during Gist-Based False Recognition

The interaction between episodic retrieval and visual attention is relatively unexplored. Given that systems mediating attention and episodic memory appear to be segregated, and perhaps even in competition, it is unclear how visual attention is recruited during episodic retrieval. We investigated the recruitment of visual attention during the suppression of gist-based false recognition, the tendency to falsely recognize items that are similar to previously encountered items. Recruitment of visual attention was associated with activity in the dorsal attention network. The inferior parietal lobule, often implicated in episodic retrieval, tracked veridical retrieval of perceptual detail and showed reduced activity during the engagement of visual attention, consistent with a competitive relationship with the dorsal attention network. These findings suggest that the contribution of the parietal cortex to interactions between visual attention and episodic retrieval entails distinct systems that contribute to different components of the task while also suppressing each other.

Influence of selective attention to sound in multisensory integration

We assessed the role of audiovisual integration in selective attention by testing selective attention to sound. Participants were asked to focus on one audio speech stream out of two audio streams presented simultaneously at different pitch. We measured recall of words from the cued or the uncued sentence using a 2AFC at the end of each trial. A video-clip of the mouth of a speaker was presented in the middle of the display, matching one of the two simultaneous auditory streams (50% of the time it matched the cued sentence and the rest the uncued one). In Experiment 1 the cue was 75% valid. Recall in the valid trials was better than in the invalid ones. The critical result was, however, that only in the valid condition we did find differences between audio–visual matching and audio-visually mismatching sentences. On the invalid condition these differences were not found. In Experiment 2 the cue to the relevant sentence was 100% valid, and we included a control condition where the lips didn’t match either of the sentences. When the lips matched the cued sentence performance was better than when they matched the uncued sentence or none of them, suggesting a benefit of audiovisual matching rather than a cost of mismatch. Our results indicate that attention to acoustic frequency (pitch) plays an important role in what sounds benefit from multisensory integration.

Does ignoring lead to worse evaluations? A new explanation of the stimulus devaluation effect

Affective evaluation of stimuli just seen in visual search tasks has been shown to depend on task-relevant stimulus configuration (Raymond, Fenske, & Tavassoli, 2003): Whereas targets and novel stimuli were evaluated similarly, distractors were devaluated. These results were explained by an inhibition-based account of the influence of selective attention on emotion. In the present experiments, we demonstrated that stimulus devaluation might not be a consequence of attentional inhibition. By simply instructing participants to react to an accepted or rejected stimulus in the visual search task of Experiment 1, we found distractor devaluation in the first case and target devaluation in the second case. We conclude that devaluation of stimuli is mediated by the affective connotation implied by response labels and instructions. This was confirmed in Experiment 2: To-be-ignored stimuli were not devaluated when participants knew that those stimuli would become task-relevant during the experiment.

The effect of spatial attention on invisible stimuli

The influence of selective attention on visual processing is widespread. Recent studies have demonstrated that spatial attention can affect processing of invisible stimuli. However, it has been suggested that this effect is limited to low-level features, such as line orientations. The present experiments investigated whether spatial attention can influence both low-level (contrast threshold) and high-level (gender discrimination) adaptation, using the same method of attentional modulation for both types of stimuli. We found that spatial attention was able to increase the amount of adaptation to low- as well as to high-level invisible stimuli. These results suggest that attention can influence perceptual processes independent of visual awareness.

Modulation of brain activity by selective task sets observed using event-related potentials

We investigated the ability of subjects to shift dynamically between selective task sets, using informative trial-by-trial cues. Two tasks were used which involved non-overlapping neural systems and different hemispheric specialization. In a verbal task, subjects decided whether a letter string was a real word or a non-word. In a spatial task, subjects decided whether an angle was acute or obtuse. A behavioural experiment showed that performance improved when cues predicted the upcoming task (80% validity), compared to when neutral cues did not afford selective task sets. Event-related potentials (ERPs) revealed brain activity related to forming selective task expectations, to switching tasks, and to the modulation of target processing as a function of such expectations and switches. Activity predicting the probable task started over parietal electrodes 160 ms after cue presentation, while activity related to task switching started at frontal electrodes around 280 ms. Both types of activities developed before target onset. Target processing was significantly influenced by the validity of the cue prediction, including strong modulation of language-related potentials. These results show that it is possible to switch dynamically between task sets involving distinct neural systems, even before the appearance of an imperative target stimulus, and that the nature of the task sets can influence neural activity related to task-set reconfiguration. Selective task sets can in turn modulate the processing of target stimuli. The effects also apply to the case of foveally presented words, whose processing has often been hypothesized to be automatic and outside the influence of selective attention.

P50 Gating is Not Affected by Selective Attention

Abstract The influence of selective attention on P50 gating - the decline of the amplitude of the P50 component of the auditory evoked potential (AEP) to the second of a pair of clicks - was examined. Three conditions were presented in counterbalanced order to 29 healthy volunteers: a baseline condition, in which the double click was presented and no specific task was required, an attention condition in which attention to the clicks was required, and a distraction condition in which paired clicks were presented during rehearsal time of a reversed digit span task. P50 gating, as measured with ratio and difference scores, did not differ across the three conditions. However, the amplitude of the N100 showed an increase in the attention condition compared to the two nonattention conditions, supporting the validity of our task manipulations. The data on P50 demonstrate that P50 gating is not affected by attentional manipulations.

Enabling Systems Thinking in the “Mesonic Millennium”: The Need for Systemic Methodologies for Conceptual Learning in Undergraduate Management Education

Successful managerial performance in the 21st century demands systems thinking. Given the challenges to effective systems thinking in practice, conceptual learning in undergraduate management education presents a significant opportunity to facilitate the development of mental models that enable such thinking. Using a cognitive approach that underscores the influence of selective attention on the development of mental models, this article explores this opportunity by highlighting the impact of attentional strategies on novice students' conceptual understanding of complex organizations. To overcome the limitations of previous educational efforts, a hypermedia methodology for teaching theory is presented as a tool that engenders the robust conceptual knowledge needed for systems thinking in the “mesonic millennium“ -a millennium of change accelerated to 1/1000 of a nanosecond.

Dichotic listening, handedness, and reading ability: A meta‐analysis

A meta‐analysis was used to aggregate data regarding the influence of selective attention, handedness, and reading ability on the right‐ear advantage in dichotic listening. Data from 15 independent dichotic studies that employed consonant‐vowel stimuli, free‐recall and directed‐attention conditions, and left‐and right‐handed children (age range 6 to 12 years, IQ > 85) classified as good and poor readers determined the sample. The statistical aggregation of research results based on the use of effect sizes and one‐sample tests indicated that younger (6 years, 0 months to 8 years, 11 months) and older (9 years, 0 months to 12 years, 11 months) good readers and older poor readers shifted attention and thus overcame the right ear advantage bias, whereas younger poor readers shift attention only in the directed‐right condition. Effect size analyses (with individuals combined for age) also indicated that left‐ and right‐handed good readers do not shift attention across directed conditions, but attentional shifting was found for left‐ and right‐handed poor readers. The meta‐analysis clearly demonstrates an interaction among age, reading ability, and handedness on dichotic listening outcome. Differences in patterns of ear report among these groups of children are suggestive of a combination of varied functional lateralization and attentional strategies employed during dichotic consonant‐vowel tasks.

Positive and negative semantic priming of attended and unattended parafoveal words in a lexical decision task

Two lexical decision experiments examining semantic priming from attented and unattended parafoveal words are reported. On every trial, a peripheral cue appearing to the left or right of fixation was followed by two parafoveal primes, one on each visual field, and a subsequent word/nonword target at fixation. In Experiment 1, duration of the cue was manipulated. Parafoveal semantic priming was found but was significant only for the attended primes, showing a similar magnitude of priming for the different cue durations levels. However, there was a great variation in priming among subjects, with some showing positive priming and others showing negative priming. In Experiment 2, different instructions to process the primes were manipulated. Results showed that (a) instructions to attend the primes were associated with positive priming; (b) instructions to ignore the primes were associated with negative priming, even when the ignored primes were cued. Implications of these findings regarding influence of selective attention on semantic processing of parafoveal words are discussed.

The Development of the Right Ear Advantage in Dichotic Listening With Focused Attention

The influence of selective attention on cerebral asymmetry in 6, 8 and 10 year old children was studied using pre-cued dichotic recall of 1 to 4 pairs of digits. A constant right ear advantage for correct recall from the attended ear and intrusions from the unattended ear was found in all three age groups. The ear difference increased with set size and across serial position with a set size of 4 digit pairs. Thus the number of items in acoustic memory determined the degree of lateral asymmetry. The ability to focus attention on the left ear improved between 6 and 8 years. It was concluded that control of directed attention, which improves with development, and left hemisphere specialization for speech processing, which remains constant, both determine performance in dichotic verbal listening.

The influence of selective attention in peripheral and foveal vision

Previous research had indicated that there were differences in the kinds of stimulus information processed by concentrated and distributed attention in peripheral vision. Concentrated attention was necessary for perceiving line arrangement differences, while line slant differences could be detected with distributed attention. However, experiments with foveal presentation showed no facilitation by concentrating attention. Experiment I replicated these results. Experiment II showed that distributed attention did degrade foveal line arrangement discrimination if the attention system was overloaded by increasing the number of elements in the array. Experiment III demonstrated that high element density was not a sufficient condition for these effects to occur. Line arrangement discrimination was reduced as letter number increased even when maximum density was held constant. In Experim~ent IV, it was shown that concentrating attention facilitated line arrangement discrimination relative to line slant discrimination in foveal vision when element number and density were held constant. The results are discussed in terms of several models postulating a difference between spread-out and concentrated attention systems.

The laterality effect in lingual-auditory tracking.

This study investigated binaural sensory processing when continuous nonspeech tonal stimuli were dichotically presented. The experimental task consisted of auditory (frequency) pursuit tracking, and consequently there was no influence of selective attention or competition on the listening task. The target sound was externally controlled, whereas the cursor sound was generated and controlled by the transduced movements of either the subject's tongue or hand. A significant laterality effect was found only when the source of motor control over the acoustic signal was the speech-related movements of the tongue. The theoretical implications of these results towards a feedback regulatory theory of speech production are discussed.