Limited Attentional Resources Research Articles

Intelligent Interruption Management using Electro Dermal Activity based Physiological Sensor for Collaborative Sensemaking

Sensemaking tasks are difficult to accomplish with limited time and attentional resources because analysts are faced with a constant stream of new information. While this information is often important, the timing of the interruptions may detract from analyst's work. In an ideal world, there would be no interruptions. But that is not the case in real world sensemaking tasks. So, in this study, we explore the value of timing interruptions based on an analyst's state of arousal as detected by Electrodermal activity derived form galvanic skin response (EDA). In a laboratory study, we compared performance when interruptions were timed to occur during increasing arousal, decreasing arousal, at random intervals or not at all. Analysts performed significantly better when interruptions occurred during periods of increasing arousal than when they were random. Further, analysts rated process component of team experience significantly higher also during periods of increasing arousal than when they were random. Self-reported workload was not impacted by interruptions timing. We discuss how system designs could leverage inexpensive off-the-shelf wrist sensors to improve interruption timing.

Better Story Recall by Deaf Children with Unimodal Communication

The present study compared sign-only to simultaneous sign and speech (SIMCOM) on recall of stories by deaf children. Thirty-six 11 to 14-year-old deaf students were presented with a series of short stories “bimodally” (using simultaneous sign and speech/SIMCOM) and “unimodally” (using sign-only) and then asked to recall whatever they could remember. A within-subject analysis was used to examine the differences in recall scores as a function of communication mode. Participants scored significantly higher in the sign-only condition than in the SIMCOM condition. There were no differences due to age, gender, home language, pure-tone average, or type of hearing-assistive technology (hearing aids or cochlear implants), but scores in both groups correlated with standardized reading scores. The finding of improved recall with sign-only presentation suggests that simultaneous speech and sign may have compromised comprehension by competing for limited attentional resources. The findings challenge the use of SIMCOM in classrooms.

High levels of time contraction in young children in dual tasks are related to their limited attention capacities

Numerous studies have shown that durations are judged shorter in a dual-task condition than in a simple-task condition. The resource-based theory of time perception suggests that this is due to the processing of temporal information, which is a demanding cognitive task that consumes limited attention resources. Our study investigated whether this time contraction in a dual-task condition is greater in younger children and, if so, whether this is specifically related to their limited attention capacities. Children aged 5–7years were given a temporal reproduction task in a simple-task condition and a dual-task condition. In addition, different neuropsychological tests were used to assess not only their attention capacities but also their capacities in terms of working memory and information processing speed. The results showed a shortening of perceived time in the dual task compared with the simple task, and this increased as age decreased. The extent of this shortening effect was directly linked to younger children’s limited attentional capacities; the lower their attentional capacities, the greater the time contraction. This study demonstrated that children’s errors in time judgments are linked to their cognitive capacities rather than to capacities that are specific to time.

The temporal and spatial brain dynamics of automatic emotion regulation in children

Mechanisms for automatic emotion regulation (AER) are essential during childhood as they offset the impact of unwanted or negative emotional responses without drawing on limited attentional resources. Despite the importance of AER in improving the efficiency and flexibility of self-regulation, few research studies have investigated the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms. To fill this gap, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate AER-related brain processes in 25 children (∼10 years old) who performed a go/no–go task that included an incidental exposure to faces containing socio-emotional cues. Whole brain results revealed that the inhibition of angry faces (compared with happy faces) was associated with a stronger recruitment of several brain regions from 100 to 425 ms. These activations involved the right angular and occipital gyri from 100 to175 ms, the right orbito-frontal gyrus (OFG) from 250 to 325 ms (pcorr < 0.05), and finally, the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL) from 325 to 425 ms. Our results suggest a specific involvement of these regions in the automatic regulation of negative emotional stimuli in children. In the future, this knowledge may help understand developmental conditions where inhibition impairments are exacerbated by an emotional context.

The Effects of Different Planning on Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency in L2 Written Tasks

This study investigates the effects of different planning variants on syntactic complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) in L2 written tasks. Within the cognitive informationprocessing approach of SLA, it was motivated by vague usage and inconsistent effects of planning on L2 performance. First, 459 undergraduate students performed two written narrative tasks. The first task was a proficiency task and the second, main one had three different planning conditions: no planning, pre-task planning, and online planning. The participants were divided into intermediate and advanced levels by the proficiency task results. After the data of 38 subjects were excluded through screening by the main task, writings of the final 421 participants were then evaluated in terms of CAF. Findings revealed that the intermediate learners’ planning benefits CAF enhancement, but the advanced learners’ planning is less beneficial, which indicates that planning is a compensating strategy for L2 learners’ limited attentional resources. Specifically, no planning led to greater accuracy, pre-task planning enhanced fluency, and online planning improved greater syntactic complexity. The results of this research will hopefully aid to understand how L2 performance is controlled by the attentional manipulation of planning, depending on L2 proficiency. The study also suggests that online planning in L2 written tasks might be empirically different compared to that in L2 spoken tasks.

Mechanisms of Practice-Related Reductions of Dual-Task Interference with Simple Tasks: Data and Theory.

In dual-task situations, interference between two simultaneous tasks impairs performance. With practice, however, this impairment can be reduced. To identify mechanisms leading to a practice-related improvement in sensorimotor dual tasks, the present review applied the following general hypothesis: Sources that impair dual-task performance at the beginning of practice are associated with mechanisms for the reduction of dual-task impairment at the end of practice. The following types of processes provide sources for the occurrence of this impairment: (a) capacity-limited processes within the component tasks, such as response-selection or motor response stages, and (b) cognitive control processes independent of these tasks and thus operating outside of component-task performance. Dual-task practice studies show that, under very specific conditions, capacity-limited processes within the component tasks are automatized with practice, reducing the interference between two simultaneous tasks. Further, there is evidence that response-selection stages are shortened with practice. Thus, capacity limitations at these stages are sources for dual-task costs at the beginning of practice and are overcome with practice. However, there is no evidence demonstrating the existence of practice-related mechanisms associated with capacity-limited motor-response stages. Further, during practice, there is an acquisition of executive control skills for an improved allocation of limited attention resources to two tasks as well as some evidence supporting the assumption of improved task coordination. These latter mechanisms are associated with sources of dual-task interference operating outside of component task performance at the beginning of practice and also contribute to the reduction of dual-task interference at its end.

Dual-Task Does Not Increase Slip and Fall Risk in Healthy Young and Older Adults during Walking.

Dual-task tests can identify gait characteristics peculiar to fallers and nonfallers. Understanding the relationship between gait performance and dual-task related cognitive-motor interference is important for fall prevention. Dual-task adapted changes in gait instability/variability can adversely affect fall risks. Although implicated, it is unclear if healthy participants' fall risks are modified by dual-task walking conditions. Seven healthy young and seven healthy older adults were randomly assigned to normal walking and dual-task walking sessions with a slip perturbation. In the dual-task session, the participants walked and simultaneously counted backwards from a randomly provided number. The results indicate that the gait changes in dual-task walking have no destabilizing effect on gait and slip responses in healthy individuals. We also found that, during dual-tasking, healthy individuals adopted cautious gait mode (CGM) strategy that is characterized by reduced walking speed, shorter step length, increased step width, and reduced heel contact velocity and is likely to be an adaptation to minimize attentional demand and decrease slip and fall risk during limited available attentional resources. Exploring interactions between gait variability and cognitive functions while walking may lead to designing appropriate fall interventions among healthy and patient population with fall risk.

Auditory Stimulus Detection Partially Depends on Visuospatial Attentional Resources.

Humans’ ability to detect relevant sensory information while being engaged in a demanding task is crucial in daily life. Yet, limited attentional resources restrict information processing. To date, it is still debated whether there are distinct pools of attentional resources for each sensory modality and to what extent the process of multisensory integration is dependent on attentional resources. We addressed these two questions using a dual task paradigm. Specifically, participants performed a multiple object tracking task and a detection task either separately or simultaneously. In the detection task, participants were required to detect visual, auditory, or audiovisual stimuli at varying stimulus intensities that were adjusted using a staircase procedure. We found that tasks significantly interfered. However, the interference was about 50% lower when tasks were performed in separate sensory modalities than in the same sensory modality, suggesting that attentional resources are partly shared. Moreover, we found that perceptual sensitivities were significantly improved for audiovisual stimuli relative to unisensory stimuli regardless of whether attentional resources were diverted to the multiple object tracking task or not. Overall, the present study supports the view that attentional resource allocation in multisensory processing is task-dependent and suggests that multisensory benefits are not dependent on attentional resources.

Postural Control Can Be Well Maintained by Healthy, Young Adults in Difficult Visual Task, Even in Sway-Referenced Dynamic Conditions.

PurposeTo challenge the validity of existing cognitive models of postural control, we recorded eye movements and postural sway during two visual tasks (a control free-viewing task and a difficult searching task), and two postural tasks (one static task in which the platform was maintained stable and a dynamic task in which the platform moved in a sway-referenced manner.) We expected these models to be insufficient to predict the results in postural control both in static–as already shown in the literature reports–and in dynamic platform conditions.MethodsTwelve healthy, young adults (17.3 to 34.1 years old) participated in this study. Postural performances were evaluated using the Multitest platform (Framiral®) and ocular recording was performed with Mobile T2 (e(ye)BRAIN®). In the free-viewing task, the participants had to look at an image, without any specific instruction. In the searching task, the participants had to look at an image and also to locate the position of an object in the scene.ResultsPostural sway was only significantly higher in the dynamic free-viewing condition than in the three other conditions with no significant difference between these three other conditions. Visual task performance was slightly higher in dynamic than in static conditions.DiscussionAs expected, our results did not confirm the main assumption of the current cognitive models of postural control–i.e. that the limited attentional resources of the brain should explain changes in postural control in our conditions. Indeed, 1) the participants did not sway significantly more in the sway-referenced dynamic searching condition than in any other condition; 2) the participants swayed significantly less in both static and dynamic searching conditions than in the dynamic free-viewing condition. We suggest that a new cognitive model illustrating the adaptive, functional role of the brain to control upright stance is necessary for future studies.

Effect of the retinal size of a peripheral cue on attentional orienting in two- and three-dimensional worlds.

It has been documented that due to limited attentional resources, the size of the attentional focus is inversely correlated with processing efficiency. Moreover, by adopting a variety of two-dimensional size illusions induced by pictorial depth cues (e.g., the Ponzo illusion), previous studies have revealed that the perceived, rather than the retinal, size of an object determines its detection. It remains unclear, however, whether and how the retinal versus perceived size of a cue influences the process of attentional orienting to subsequent targets, and whether the corresponding influencing processes differ between two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) space. In the present study, we incorporated the dot probe paradigm with either a 2-D Ponzo illusion, induced by pictorial depth cues, or a virtual 3-D world in which the Ponzo illusion turned into visual reality. By varying the retinal size of the cue while keeping its perceived size constant (Exp. 1), we found that a cue with smaller retinal size significantly facilitated attentional orienting as compared to a cue with larger retinal size, and that the effects were comparable between 2-D and 3-D displays. Furthermore, when the pictorial background was removed and the cue display was positioned in either the farther or the closer depth plane (Exp. 2), or when both the depth and the background were removed (Exp. 3), the retinal size, rather than the depth, of the cue still affected attentional orienting. Taken together, our results suggest that the retinal size of a cue plays the crucial role in the visuospatial orienting of attention in both 2-D and 3-D.

Effects of emotional intensity under perceptual load: An event-related potentials (ERPs) study

Effects of emotional intensity and valence on visual event-related potentials (ERPs) are still poorly understood, in particular in the context of limited attentional resources. In the present EEG study, we investigated the effect of emotional intensity of different emotional facial expressions on P1, N170, early posterior negativity (EPN) and late positive potential (LPP) while varying the amount of available attentional resources. A new stimulus set comprising 90 full color pictures of neutral, happy (low, high intensity), and angry (low, high intensity) expressions was developed. These facial expressions were presented centrally, superimposed by two horizontal bars, and participants engaged in a focal bars task. Availability of attentional resources was varied in two conditions by manipulating the difficulty of the focal bars task (low vs. high perceptual load). Our findings demonstrate intensity and valence effects of task-irrelevant facial expressions on early (N170) and intermediate processing stages (EPN). In addition, task-related effects of perceptual load evolved at intermediate processing stages and were full blown in the time window of LPP. In line with limited resource accounts, valence effects on N170 and EPN were reduced under high perceptual load. Interestingly, apart from this valence by load interaction no further interactions between stimulus and task-driven factors were obtained: Effects of emotional intensity were not modulated by the perceptual load of the focal bars task, indicating that emotional intensity was processed even though attentional resources were heavily restricted.

Attentional Resource Allocation in Visuotactile Processing Depends on the Task, But Optimal Visuotactile Integration Does Not Depend on Attentional Resources.

Humans constantly process and integrate sensory input from multiple sensory modalities. However, the amount of input that can be processed is constrained by limited attentional resources. A matter of ongoing debate is whether attentional resources are shared across sensory modalities, and whether multisensory integration is dependent on attentional resources. Previous research suggested that the distribution of attentional resources across sensory modalities depends on the the type of tasks. Here, we tested a novel task combination in a dual task paradigm: Participants performed a self-terminated visual search task and a localization task in either separate sensory modalities (i.e., haptics and vision) or both within the visual modality. Tasks considerably interfered. However, participants performed the visual search task faster when the localization task was performed in the tactile modality in comparison to performing both tasks within the visual modality. This finding indicates that tasks performed in separate sensory modalities rely in part on distinct attentional resources. Nevertheless, participants integrated visuotactile information optimally in the localization task even when attentional resources were diverted to the visual search task. Overall, our findings suggest that visual search and tactile localization partly rely on distinct attentional resources, and that optimal visuotactile integration is not dependent on attentional resources.

The Problem of Attentional Interference in Learning from Failures in Multitask Settings

There has been increasing interest among scholars in multitask performance. Although human performance is a function of learning from previous experiences, we know little about learning effects in multitask settings. Drawing upon the literature on the problem of attentional interference in learning, I predict that previously failed tasks compete for individuals' limited attentional resources in learning, and that they learn less from the previously failed focal task if more nonfocal tasks that they failed to perform also required their attention. I also argue that this propensity becomes stronger when the failures to complete nonfocal tasks are unpredicted. The empirical analysis of longitudinal data in figure skating supports the arguments and presents some practical implications for the design of multitask settings from a learning perspective.

Breaking Object Correspondence Across Saccadic Eye Movements Deteriorates Object Recognition.

Visual perception is based on information processing during periods of eye fixations that are interrupted by fast saccadic eye movements. The ability to sample and relate information on task-relevant objects across fixations implies that correspondence between presaccadic and postsaccadic objects is established. Postsaccadic object information usually updates and overwrites information on the corresponding presaccadic object. The presaccadic object representation is then lost. In contrast, the presaccadic object is conserved when object correspondence is broken. This helps transsaccadic memory but it may impose attentional costs on object recognition. Therefore, we investigated how breaking object correspondence across the saccade affects postsaccadic object recognition. In Experiment 1, object correspondence was broken by a brief postsaccadic blank screen. Observers made a saccade to a peripheral object which was displaced during the saccade. This object reappeared either immediately after the saccade or after the blank screen. Within the postsaccadic object, a letter was briefly presented (terminated by a mask). Observers reported displacement direction and letter identity in different blocks. Breaking object correspondence by blanking improved displacement identification but deteriorated postsaccadic letter recognition. In Experiment 2, object correspondence was broken by changing the object’s contrast-polarity. There were no object displacements and observers only reported letter identity. Again, breaking object correspondence deteriorated postsaccadic letter recognition. These findings identify transsaccadic object correspondence as a key determinant of object recognition across the saccade. This is in line with the recent hypothesis that breaking object correspondence results in separate representations of presaccadic and postsaccadic objects which then compete for limited attentional processing resources (Schneider, 2013). Postsaccadic object recognition is then deteriorated because less resources are available for processing postsaccadic objects.

Stable Task Representations under Attentional Load Revealed with Multivariate Pattern Analysis of Human Brain Activity.

Performing multiple tasks concurrently places a load on limited attentional resources and results in disrupted task performance. Although human neuroimaging studies have investigated the neural correlates of attentional load, how attentional load affects task processing is poorly understood. Here, task-related neural activity was investigated using fMRI with conventional univariate analysis and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) while participants performed blocks of prosaccades and antisaccades, either with or without a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. Performing prosaccades and antisaccades with RSVP increased error rates and RTs, decreased mean activation in frontoparietal brain areas associated with oculomotor control, and eliminated differences in activation between prosaccades and antisaccades. However, task identity could be decoded from spatial patterns of activation both in the absence and presence of an attentional load. Furthermore, in the FEFs and intraparietal sulcus, these spatial representations were found to be similar using cross-trial-type MVPA, which suggests stability under attentional load. These results demonstrate that attentional load may disrupt the strength of task-related neural activity, rather than the identity of task representations.

The attentional cost of receiving a cell phone notification.

It is well documented that interacting with a mobile phone is associated with poorer performance on concurrently performed tasks because limited attentional resources must be shared between tasks. However, mobile phones generate auditory or tactile notifications to alert users of incoming calls and messages. Although these notifications are generally short in duration, they can prompt task-irrelevant thoughts, or mind wandering, which has been shown to damage task performance. We found that cellular phone notifications alone significantly disrupted performance on an attention-demanding task, even when participants did not directly interact with a mobile device during the task. The magnitude of observed distraction effects was comparable in magnitude to those seen when users actively used a mobile phone, either for voice calls or text messaging.

A process model of self-regulation and leadership: How attentional resource capacity and negative emotions influence constructive and destructive leadership

This study proposes a process model of the antecedents of both constructive and destructive leadership. As task difficulty increases, a leader's limited attentional resource capacity may become overwhelmed by the experience of high levels of negative emotions, resulting in self-regulation impairment and destructive leadership. When task difficulty is low, or when negative emotions do not overwhelm attentional resource capacity, then self-regulation is effective, giving rise to constructive leadership. We test our model with 161 leaders in the field and find good support for our model in the prediction of transformational leadership and abusive supervision as specific examples of constructive and destructive leadership.

Average is boring: how similarity kills a meme's success.

Every day we are exposed to different ideas, or memes, competing with each other for our attention. Previous research explained popularity and persistence heterogeneity of memes by assuming them in competition for limited attention resources, distributed in a heterogeneous social network. Little has been said about what characteristics make a specific meme more likely to be successful. We propose a similarity-based explanation: memes with higher similarity to other memes have a significant disadvantage in their potential popularity. We employ a meme similarity measure based on semantic text analysis and computer vision to prove that a meme is more likely to be successful and to thrive if its characteristics make it unique. Our results show that indeed successful memes are located in the periphery of the meme similarity space and that our similarity measure is a promising predictor of a meme success.

Inattentional blindness and the von Restorff effect.

Sometimes we fail to notice distinctive or unusual items (inattentional blindness), while other times we remember distinctive items more than expected items (the von Restorff effect). A three-factor framework is presented and tested in two experiments in an attempt to reconcile these seemingly contradictory phenomena. Memory for different types of unexpected stimuli was tested after an easy or difficult Stroop color-naming task. Highly arousing taboo words were well remembered even when the difficult Stroop task limited attentional resources. However, a conceptual isolation effect was only observed when the nature of the category change was highlighted by the Stroop task, the Stroop task was easy, and/or the isolated targets enjoyed a retrieval advantage relative to comparison targets. As proposed in the three-factor framework, the arousing qualities of the stimuli, the attentional demands of the primary task, and the relevance of isolated features at encoding and retrieval combine to produce inattentional blindness and the von Restorff effect.

Increasing the Effective Span of Control: Advanced Graphics for Proactive, Trend-Based Monitoring

OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONS Legacy status display formats limit the number of processes that human operators can effectively and proactively monitor. Through a design approach targeting the needs of human attention, a novel trend–icon hybrid status display format (Trendicon; patent pending; Fisher Rosemount Systems, Inc., Round Rock, TX) was developed for proactive monitoring. An experiment contrasting Trendicons with digital values and trend graphs revealed that after minimal training, Trendicons supported earlier problem detections and more frequent proactive detections. Further, Trendicons led to a roughly fivefold increase in process indicators that participants could effectively oversee. Practical implications include earlier problem detection, improved system operation, and an increased operator span of control. Participants’ incorrect initial intuitions about display effectiveness highlight potential pitfalls of flexible, configurable displays. Trendicons are being developed for process and military control displays. The attention management design approach taken here is applicable to the design of supervisory status views for display-mediated work domains.TECHNICAL ABSTRACT Background: Process control operators rely heavily on their visual displays to monitor and stay abreast of processes and situations, anticipate future status, and proactively detect and resolve emerging problems. However, fielded status displays support only a subset of these tasks and can engender reactive rather than proactive monitoring because of inadequate attention management. Reactive monitoring is a significant barrier to effective operations and increasing operator span of control. Purpose: The benefits of an attention management design approach are demonstrated through the development and evaluation of a novel trend–icon hybrid (Trendicon) display format to support proactive monitoring. Methods: A within-subjects experiment contrasted the effectiveness of three status indicator formats—digital values, trend graphs, and Trendicons—in supporting proactive detection of emerging deviations. Span of control was assessed by varying the number of concurrently monitored status indicators (4, 12, and 24). Participants’ intuitions and preferences for the indicator formats were assessed as a proxy for display configuration choices. Results: Monitoring was largely reactive for digital values and trend graphs. In contrast, Trendicons promoted earlier problem detections and more frequent proactive detections, leading to a nearly fivefold increase in effective span of control. However, participants initially underestimated the utility of Trendicons. Conclusions: By explicitly designing attention management into new representations of process status, a dramatic increase in effective span of control was achieved over legacy formats. Better allocation of limited attentional resources during monitoring helped shift the nature of monitoring from reactive to proactive. Miscalibrated performance intuitions and preferences demonstrate that designers must consider both performance and user beliefs about display effectiveness. Development of Trendicons is ongoing in process and military control display applications. Designing for and addressing the underlying cognitive challenges of display-mediated supervisory control can result in more effective system operation, safer management of abnormal situations, and increased productivity.