Shifts Of Attention Research Articles

Revisiting the elaboration likelihood model in the context of a virtual influencer: A comparison between high‐ and low‐involvement products

AbstractWhile existing research on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) has primarily focused on human influencers, the literature on virtual influencers (also known as digital humans or AI influencers) remains limited. To address this research gap, this study investigates the factors influencing consumer attitudes toward ads promoted by virtual influencers. Extending the ELM framework, we examine perceived expertise and attractiveness as antecedents, and explore consumer online‐to‐offline dynamics as consequences. Using a multigroup structural equation model, the study compares high‐ and low‐involvement product ads by analyzing questionnaires (n = 406). A novelty lies in our findings that, contrary to existing ELM research, perceived attractiveness significantly influences attitudes toward the ads across both high‐ and low‐involvement levels. We attribute this result to a shift of consumer attention towards virtual influencers, driven by their attention‐grabbing aesthetic appeals. Our study extends the ELM framework and contributes to the literature on digital marketing, advertising, and human‐computer interaction.

Dynamic alpha power modulations and slow negative potentials track natural shifts of spatio-temporal attention.

Alpha power modulations and slow negative potentials have previously been associated with anticipatory processes in spatial and temporal top-down attention. In typical experimental designs, however, neural responses triggered by transient stimulus onsets can interfere with attention-driven activity patterns and our interpretation of such. Here, we investigated these signatures of spatio-temporal attention in a dynamic paradigm free from potentially confounding stimulus-driven activity using electroencephalography. Participants attended the cued side of a bilateral stimulus rotation and mentally counted how often one of two remembered sample orientations (i.e., the target) was displayed while ignoring the uncued side and non-target orientation. Afterwards, participants performed a delayed match-to-sample task, in which they indicated if the orientation of a probe stimulus matched the corresponding sample orientation (previously target or non-target). We observed dynamic alpha power reductions and slow negative waves around task-relevant points in space and time (i.e., onset of the target orientation in the cued hemifield) over posterior electrodes contralateral to the locus of attention. In contrast to static alpha power lateralization, these dynamic signatures correlated with subsequent memory performance (primarily detriments for matching probes of the non-target orientation), suggesting a preferential allocation of attention to task-relevant locations and time points at the expense of reduced resources and impaired performance for information outside the current focus of attention. Our findings suggest that humans can naturally and dynamically focus their attention at relevant points in space and time and that such spatio-temporal attention shifts can be reflected by dynamic alpha power modulations and slow negative potentials.

Psychopathy and gaze cueing

Psychopathic traits - and especially callous affective features - have been linked to altered processing of others' emotional expressions, and to reduced attention to the eyes. Despite the importance of gaze cueing (i.e., the tendency to orient attention toward where someone else is looking) for social functioning, few studies have investigated relationships between psychopathic traits and gaze cueing, and whether facial emotional expression influence these relationships, obtaining mixed results. To address this gap, the present study aimed to evaluate associations between psychopathic traits and gaze cueing for emotional and neutral expressions. 65 non-clinical male participants (Mage=27.3 years) completed two self-report measures of psychopathy and performed laboratory tasks to assess gaze-cueing for emotional vs. neutral faces and an arrow-cueing task as a comparison. Linear mixed models showed no significant associations of emotional (versus neutral) expressions, or psychopathy trait dimensions, with either gaze cueing or arrow cueing. Reliance on a convenience sample of non-clinical men, assessed with self-reports measures of psychopathy, and using static emotional stimuli limit the generalizability of our findings. Findings suggest that psychopathic traits are not associated with individual differences in following others' gaze to direct attention, and that there was no advantage for affective relative to neutral expressions.

A lateralized alpha-band marker of the interference of exogenous attention over endogenous attention.

Scientists differentiate top-down from bottom-up visuospatial attention processes. While bottom-up attention is rapidly engaged by emerging demands from the environment, top-down attention in contrast reflects slow voluntary shifts of spatial attention. Several lines of research substantiate the idea that top-down and bottom-up attentional processes involve distinct functional systems. An increasing number of studies, however, argue that both attention systems share brain processing resources. The current study examines how salient visual events that engage bottom-up processes interfere with top-down attentional processes. Using neurophysiological recordings and multivariate pattern classification techniques, the authors show that these patterns of interference occur within the alpha-band of neural activity (8-12Hz), which implies that bottom-up and top-down attention processes share this narrow-band frequency brain resource. The results further demonstrate that patterns of alpha-band activity explains, in part, the interference between top-down and bottom-up attention at the behavioral level.

The manipulative essence of visual media: from man-made images to generative deepfakes

The paper explores the problems of manipulation and reliability of information in the visual media. Manipulation is part of their essence. Distortions in the message arise from a shift in attention from reality as such to how it’s seen by others or who and how it’s represented. The objective vision is replaced by a presentation of the vision of others in visual media. This opens up the possibility of manipulation and becomes the reason for the creation of visual falsifications. Modernity has become the era of post-truth. Visual media are increasingly shifting towards total falsification with the development of digital technologies, artificial intelligence. The generated image turns out to be more real and reliable than reality itself. This paper uses the classification of visual media images based on how they are created. An attempt is made to identify the causes of distortions in the representation of reality at different stages of the development of visual media. The article analyzes how the technologies of creating visual images affect the development of manipulative and falsifying practices that undermine the credibility of the visual message.

Associations between neighborhood environment and computerized cognitive performance among older Black adults

AbstractBackgroundStudies have suggested that neighborhood quality is associated with health outcomes beyond individuals’ socioeconomic characteristics (Kind & Buckingham, 2018; Ludwig et al., 2011). Limited research has explored how subjective neighborhood quality is associated with cognitive functioning, particularly among socioeconomically diverse Black adults. The current study examined the cross‐sectional association between perceived neighborhood characteristics and cognitive functioning among Black adults.MethodThis study included 1,079 community‐dwelling, socioeconomically diverse Black adults (Mage = 56.64, SDage = 9.14; 59% female) from wave 4 of the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) study. Neighborhood quality was assessed using three scales about built environment disorder (e.g., litter, graffiti, and crime), social cohesion (e.g., close‐knit neighborhood, neighbors can be trusted), and social control (e.g., neighbors take action for children disrespecting adults). Cognitive functioning was assessed using the computerized Joggle battery. Multivariable linear regression analyses were conducted with each cognitive measure as the outcome measure. Models were adjusted for age, sex, education, reading literacy, poverty status, and depressive symptoms.ResultIn the adjusted models, higher built environment disorder was associated with slower performance (p < .05) on an attention and visual orientation measure and fewer correct responses (p’s < .05) on attention, executive function, and speed measures. High social cohesion was associated with faster performance (p < .05) on attention, visual orientation, executive function, and speed measures. Additionally, high social cohesion was associated with greater numbers of correct responses (p < .05) on an attention and executive function measure. Interestingly, high social control was associated with slower performance on executive function. Significant interactions were observed between neighborhood quality and covariates. For example, higher perceived social cohesion was associated with slower average reaction time on memory and attention, particularly for individuals with higher depression total scores. In contrast, higher perceived social cohesion was associated with faster average reaction time on executive functioning, particularly for men.ConclusionThese findings underscore the importance of environmental characteristics for cognitive performance among Black adults. Further, these findings support the continued assessment of contextual factors as mechanisms or avenues for understanding how to improve cognitive functioning.

Pregnancy and Early Life Complications of PCOS

This presentation delves into the wide-ranging effects of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) on women’s lives, specifically exploring its manifestations during adolescence and pregnancy. Starting with PCOS in early life, we delve into the hormonal shifts of puberty and their connection to PCOS development. Challenges of diagnosing PCOS in adolescents are discussed, along with the distinct cardiometabolic and psychological issues they face. The section concludes with pragmatic insights into the 2023 PCOS Guideline’s recommendations for managing PCOS during these pivotal years. Moving to PCOS during pregnancy, attention shifts to the complex hormonal and physiological adjustments the female body undergoes to support foetal growth. PCOS-related mechanisms that might contribute to pregnancy complications are examined. In addition, we present evidence from 2023 PCOS Guideline meta-analyses revealing the various pregnancy complications in this high-risk population. Concluding, we navigate antenatal care terrain aligned with the 2023 Guideline and present evidence on metformin’s role in PCOS pregnancies. This presentation provides a comprehensive view of PCOS from adolescence to pregnancy. By integrating up-to-date guidelines and evidence, it aims to equip healthcare professionals with practical insights for navigating PCOS’s complexities, ultimately improving patient care.

Effects of sex on the attentional orientation bias toward emotional expressions in children: An eye-tracking study.

Effects of sex on the attentional orientation bias toward emotional expressions in children: An eye-tracking study.

Language systematizes attention: How relational language enhances relational representation by guiding attention

Language can affect cognition, but through what mechanism? Substantial past research has focused on how labeling can elicit categorical representation during online processing. We focus here on a particularly powerful type of language-relational language-and show that relational language can enhance relational representation in children through an embodied attention mechanism. Four-year-old children were given a color-location conjunction task, in which they were asked to encode a two-color square, split either vertically or horizontally (e.g., red on the left, blue on the right), and later recall the same configuration from its mirror reflection. During the encoding phase, children in the experimental condition heard relational language (e.g., "Red is on the left of blue"), while those in the control condition heard generic non-relational language (e.g., "Look at this one, look at it closely"). At recall, children in the experimental condition were more successful at choosing the correct relational representation between the two colors compared to the control group. Moreover, they exhibited different attention patterns as predicted by the attention shift account of relational representation (Franconeri et al., 2012). To test the sustained effect of language and the role of attention, during the second half of the study, the experimental condition was given generic non-relational language. There was a sustained advantage in the experimental condition for both behavioral accuracies and signature attention patterns. Overall, our findings suggest that relational language enhances relational representation by guiding learners' attention, and this facilitative effect persists over time even in the absence of language. Implications for the mechanism of how relational language can enhance the learning of relational systems (e.g., mathematics, spatial cognition) by guiding attention will be discussed.

Comparing the Utility of Coupled Aero-Hydrodynamic Analysis Using a CFD Solver versus a Potential Flow Solver for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

There has been a great effort towards development of renewable energy systems to combat global warming with significant interest towards research and development of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs). With commercial projects such as Hywind Scotland, Hywind Tampen and others, there is a shift of industry attention from bottom-fixed offshore turbines to FOWTs. In this work, we focus on comparing industry standard Potential Flow (PF) methods versus Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solvers for a scaled version of the IEA 15 MW turbine and associated FOWT system. The results from the two solvers are compared/validated using experimental thrust values for the fixed turbine. The motions and the thrust for the FOWT system are then compared for the two solvers along with hydrodynamic properties of the floater hull. The wake features downstream of the turbine are analyzed for the fixed and floating turbine using the CFD solver. The wake from the CFD solver is also compared with a simplified PF model. Finally, a simplified cost-benefit analysis is presented for the two solvers to compare the usefulness and utility of a CFD solver as compared to presently used industry-standard PF methods.

Optimizing component activation and operation aborting in missions with consecutive attempts and common abort command

Optimizing component activation and operation aborting in missions with consecutive attempts and common abort command

The Establishment of Chinese Film Industry Studies and the Correction of Film Industrialization – Review and Prospect of the Twenty Years of Film Industrialization Reform

Abstract Over the past two decades, the industrialization of film and its discursive space have presented an open trend. Chinese film industry studies encompass multidimensional connotations involving economics, culture, and ideology. National will and policy-driven initiatives form the underlying logic of “industry studies,” while market-oriented approaches connect attention with the commodification of films, becoming the domain for the industry’s transformation. In the past twenty years, the industrial reform process of the Chinese film industry, along with innovations in film policies and institutions and their implementation, has reflected and outlined this multifaceted context. The film industry possesses the attributes of economy, culture, and ideology and, as a public good, includes issues related to attention orientation and correction. The construction of Chinese film industry studies, and the in-depth examination of the results and issues related to market discourse, is significant for further promoting the sustainable development of the film industry and fostering the prosperity of Chinese cinema.

The Impact of Spanish Repression on the Evolution of the Catalan Networked Public Sphere During the Post-Referendum Crisis (2017–2022)

ABSTRACT This article analyses the impact on the Catalan networked public sphere of the Spanish repression that unfolded following the organisation of a referendum on Catalonia’s independence in 2017. Grounded in nearly a decade of Twitter data, it reveals significant shifts in public attention towards state repression. Initially marginal, it gained prominence after the police operation started, surpassing general topics until COVID-19 emerged. Yet, its focus remained temporally limited compared to the persistent independence theme. Network analysis highlights media, political, and civil society actors’ influential roles in shaping the Catalan networked public sphere, with a prominence of white, cisgender, male crowdsourced elites leading the conversations.

Attentional bias towards happy faces in the dot-probe paradigm: it depends on which task is used

ABSTRACT Two recent articles [Gronchi et al., 2018. Automatic and controlled attentional orienting in the elderly: A dual-process view of the positivity effect. Acta Psychologica, 185, 229–234; Wirth & Wentura, 2020. It occurs after all: Attentional bias towards happy faces in the dot-probe task. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 82(5), 2463–2481] report attentional biases for happy facial expressions in the dot-probe paradigm, albeit in different directions. While Wirth and Wentura report a bias towards happy expressions, Gronchi et al. found a reversed effect. A striking difference between the studies was the task performed by the participants. While in Wirth and Wentura, participants performed a discrimination task, they performed a location task in Gronchi et al. In Experiment 1, we directly compared the two versions of the dot-probe paradigm. With the discrimination task, the bias towards happy faces was replicated. However, the location task yielded a null effect. In Experiment 2, we found a cueing effect with an abrupt onset cue in both tasks. However, for the location task a congruence-sequence effect (a typical characteristic of response-priming processes) occurred. This result suggests that in the location task, attentional processes are confounded with response-priming processes. We recommend to generally use discrimination tasks.

MSS-UNet: A Multi-Spatial-Shift MLP-based UNet for skin lesion segmentation

Multilayer perceptron (MLP) networks have become a popular alternative to convolutional neural networks and transformers because of fewer parameters. However, existing MLP-based models improve performance by increasing model depth, which adds computational complexity when processing local features of images. To meet this challenge, we propose MSS-UNet, a lightweight convolutional neural network (CNN) and MLP model for the automated segmentation of skin lesions from dermoscopic images. Specifically, MSS-UNet first uses the convolutional module to extract local information, which is essential for precisely segmenting the skin lesion. We propose an efficient double-spatial-shift MLP module, named DSS-MLP, which enhances the vanilla MLP by enabling communication between different spatial locations through double spatial shifts. We also propose a module named MSSEA with multiple spatial shifts of different strides and lighter external attention to enlarge the local receptive field and capture the boundary continuity of skin lesions. We extensively evaluated the MSS-UNet on ISIC 2017, 2018, and PH2 skin lesion datasets. On three datasets, the method achieves IoU metrics of 85.01%±0.65, 83.65%±1.05, and 92.71%±1.03, with a parameter size and computational complexity of 0.33M and 15.98G, respectively, outperforming most state-of-the-art methods.The code is publicly available at https://github.com/AirZWH/MSS-UNet.

Reduced REM and N2 sleep, and lower dream intensity predict increased mind-wandering.

Mind-wandering is a mental state in which attention shifts from the present environment or current task to internally driven, self-referent mental content. Homeostatic sleep pressure seems to facilitate mind-wandering as indicated by studies observing links between increased mind-wandering and impaired sleep. Nevertheless, previous studies mostly relied on cross-sectional measurements and self-reports. We aimed to combine the accuracy of objective sleep measures with the use of self-reports in a naturalistic setting in order to examine if objective sleep parameters predict the tendency for increased mind-wandering on the following day. We used mobile sleep electroencephalographic (EEG) headbands and self-report scales over 7 consecutive nights in a group of 67 healthy participants yielding ~400 analyzable nights. Nights with more wakefulness and shorter REM and slow wave sleep were associated with poorer subjective sleep quality at the intraindividual level. Reduced REM and N2 sleep, as well as less intense dream experiences, predicted more mind-wandering the following day. Our micro-longitudinal study indicates that intraindividual fluctuations in the duration of specific sleep stages predict the perception of sleep quality as assessed in the morning, as well as the intensity of daytime mind-wandering the following hours. The combined application of sleep EEG assessments and self-reports over repeated assessments provides new insights into the subtle intraindividual, night-to-day associations between nighttime sleep and the next day's subjective experiences.

Social processing modulates the initial allocation ofattention towards angry faces: evidence from the N2pc component.

Previous research has shown that attentional bias towards angry faces is moderated by the activation of a social processing mode. More specifically, reliable cueing effects for angry face cues in the dot-probe task only occurred when participants performed a task that required social processing of the target stimuli. However, cueing effects are a rather distal measure of covert shifts in spatial attention. Thus, it remains unclear whether the social processing mode modulates initial allocation of attention to or attentional disengagement from angry faces. In the present study, we used the N2pc, an event-related potential component, as an index of attentional shifts towards angry faces. Participants performed a dot-probe task with two different target conditions while the electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. In the social target condition, target stimuli were socially meaningful (schematic faces), and in the non-social target condition, they were meaningless (scrambled schematic faces). The amplitude of the N2pc component elicited by angry face cues was significantly larger in the social target condition than in the non-social target condition. This pattern also occurred for behavioural cueing effects. These results suggest that the activation of a social processing mode due to current task demands affects the initial allocation of attention towards angry faces.

Reduced Intra- and Inter-Network Functional Connectivity Identified in Patients with Tinnitus with and without Hearing Loss

Introduction: The aim of the study was to investigate differences in the intra- and inter-network functional connectivity (FC) of the brain using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) in patients with tinnitus, with (T + H) or without hearing loss (T). Methods: We performed rs-fMRI on 82 participants (21 T, 32 T + H, and 29 healthy controls). An independent component analysis (ICA) was performed to obtain the resting-state networks (RSNs) and calculate the differences in FC. Moreover, we investigated the relationships between networks using functional network connectivity analysis. Results: We identified nine major RSNs, including the auditory network; default mode network; executive control network (ECN), including the right frontoparietal network and left frontoparietal network (LFPN); somatomotor network (SMN); dorsal attention network; ventral attention network; salience network (SN); and visual network (VN). These RSNs were extracted in all groups using ICA. Compared with that in the control group, we observed reduced FC between the LFPN and VN in the T group and between the LFPN and SN in the T + H group. The inter-network connectivity analysis revealed decreased network interactions in the SMN (IC 22)-ECN (IC 2), SMN (IC 22)-VN (IC 8), and VN (IC 14)-SN (IC 3) connections in the T + H group, compared with the healthy control group. Furthermore, we observed significantly decreased network interactions in the SMN (IC 22)-VN (IC 8) in the T group. Conclusions: Our results indicated abnormalities within the brain networks of the T and T + H groups, including the SMN, ECN, and VN, compared with the control group. Furthermore, both T and T + H groups demonstrated reduced FC between the LFPN, VN, and SMN. There were no significant differences between the T and the T + H groups. Furthermore, we observed reduced FC between the right olfactory cortex and the orbital part of the right middle frontal gyrus, right precentral gyrus, left dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus, and right triangular part of the inferior frontal gyrus within the T and T + H groups. Thus, disruptions in brain regions responsible for attention, stimulus monitoring, and auditory orientation contribute to tinnitus generation.

Combining EEG and 3D-eye-tracking to study the prediction of upcoming speech in naturalistic virtual environments: A proof of principle

EEG and eye-tracking provide complementary information when investigating language comprehension. Evidence that speech processing may be facilitated by speech prediction comes from the observation that a listener's eye gaze moves towards a referent before it is mentioned if the remainder of the spoken sentence is predictable. However, changes to the trajectory of anticipatory fixations could result from a change in prediction or an attention shift. Conversely, N400 amplitudes and concurrent spectral power provide information about the ease of word processing the moment the word is perceived. In a proof-of-principle investigation, we combined EEG and eye-tracking to study linguistic prediction in naturalistic, virtual environments. We observed increased processing, reflected in theta band power, either during verb processing - when the verb was predictive of the noun - or during noun processing - when the verb was not predictive of the noun. Alpha power was higher in response to the predictive verb and unpredictable nouns. We replicated typical effects of noun congruence but not predictability on the N400 in response to the noun. Thus, the rich visual context that accompanied speech in virtual reality influenced language processing compared to previous reports, where the visual context may have facilitated processing of unpredictable nouns. Finally, anticipatory fixations were predictive of spectral power during noun processing and the length of time fixating the target could be predicted by spectral power at verb onset, conditional on the object having been fixated. Overall, we show that combining EEG and eye-tracking provides a promising new method to answer novel research questions about the prediction of upcoming linguistic input, for example, regarding the role of extralinguistic cues in prediction during language comprehension.

Dissociation of drug and negative emotional cue induced attentional bias in individuals with methamphetamine-use disorder.

Although both drugs and negative emotions can trigger drug craving or relapse in individuals with methamphetamine-use disorder (MUD), it remains unclear whether individuals with MUD have attentional biases toward both drug and negative emotional cues and whether this bias involves attention orientation or difficulty in attention disengagement. This study aimed to measure different components of attentional bias toward drug-related and negative emotional cues in individuals with MUD. Two dot-probe tasks were used to investigate attentional bias toward drug (drug task) and negative emotional cues (emotion task) in individuals with MUD. Forty-three males with MUD (average age of 43.44 ± 11.91 years, average drug-use duration of 11.35 ± 8.39 years) participated in the study voluntarily. There was a significant interaction between the task type and location (p = .01). Specifically, for drug cues, participants showed significant difficulty in attention disengagement toward drug cues (p = .01); however, no attention orientation (p = .46). For negative emotional cues, neither significant attention orientation (p = .07) nor significant difficulty in attention disengagement (p = .50) was found. Attentional bias in individuals with MUD was highly selective for drug cues; thus, difficulty in attention disengagement from drug cues can be considered a potential mediating mechanism for attentional bias modification interventions for individuals with MUD. This study served to generate hypotheses or suggest future experiments on interventions for individuals with MUD.