Selective Attention Hypothesis Research Articles

How do gamblers maintain an illusion of control?

Introduction: Gamblers' enduring illusions of control (IOC) may be one reason why they continue to gamble in the face of sustained losses. If gamblers persist in the belief that they have special skills, knowledge and other advantages when gambling, they may be able to convince themselves it is worth doing again. Maintaining an IOC requires selective attention of the illusion supporting moments during the construction of an evaluation of a gambling session.Objective: Test the hypothesis that selected moments, specifically the moment of the highest win and the last moment of the gaming session, explain the retrospective evaluation of the session for gamblers high in the illusion of control.Method: A total of 102 and 35 experienced gamblers were recruited from gambling venues and participated in two studies by gambling on 20 occasions on coin toss outcomes. Participants were asked to evaluate their enjoyment of the gambling experience they had just completed, and completed an IOC Beliefs Questionnaire designed to measure the extent to which they believe they are good at influencing gambling outcomes.Results: Gamblers with a high IOC use the largest win in their evaluation when they lose. This is consistent with the motivated selective attention hypothesis. Non-threatened gamblers, those with a low IOC or winners, use the final outcome as the determinant of their evaluation of the gaming session.Conclusion: The results suggest that instead of altering an important characteristic of self, gamblers instead reflect on the moment of a gambling episode that does not threaten, and in fact supports, their ability to find patterns in random events. Indicators of the illusion could be used to assist gamblers in controlling their own behavior.

Gender and Attention in Depression: Examining the Role of Modified Attention in Shifting Mood and Cognitions

The modified selective attention hypothesis proposes that individuals showing signs of depression will fail to disengage from negative stimuli in the environment. Some research suggests that depressive symptoms decrease once this bias is “corrected”. Thus, attention may play a causal and/or sustaining role in depression. The present study examined whether (a) attention can be modified in a student sample to induce a negative attentional bias; and (b) this trained attentional bias will be associated with negative shifts in mood and cognitions. A sample of undergraduates (N = 112) were recruited and asked to complete questionnaires designed to measure depressive symptoms, mood, and negative thoughts toward the self. Participants were then randomly assigned to either an attend-negative (n = 60) or a no-training control condition (n = 52), and asked to complete a computer task. In the attend-negative condition, the computer task (dot probe) was designed to elicit a transient attentional bias toward negative stimuli. After the completion of this task, participants completed the questionnaires a second time. Participants in the experimental condition evidenced higher negative attentional bias scores in comparison to control participants. Further, females demonstrated more negative attention at the end of the training relative to males. Repeated measures analysis of variances further found that following the completion of the computer task, both groups evidenced a negative shift in mood. These results must be interpreted with caution given that baseline attentional biases were not measured in this study. Replication and extension of the findings of this study is necessary.

Selective Attention to Online Political Information

Selective attention is a key concept in communication research despite equivocal supporting evidence. This study focuses on methodological concerns in the study of selective attention. Using unobtrusive measures of selective attention to online political content this study found consistent support for the selective attention hypothesis. Three within-subjects quasi experiments were conducted (n = 29, n = 36, and n = 75) that measured subjects' attention to information consistent with and counter to their beliefs. Two other measures of selective attention were also used: (1) whether subjects turned first to consistent or counter information, and (2) how deeply into the material they read.

Systemic idazoxan impairs performance in a non-reversal shift test: implications for the role of the central noradrenergic systems in selective attention

Two experiments examined the effect of pharmacological stimulation of the locus coeruleus in a non-reversal shift paradigm to test predictions concerning the role of the ceruleo-cortical noradrenergic system in processes of selective attention. Food-deprived rats were trained to make either visual (experiment 1) or spatial (experiment 2) discriminations in a parallel alley with both sets of cues being present at all times. Two groups of rats received treatments of either 2 mg/kg i.p. of the selective α(2) adrenoceptor antagonist idazoxan or saline control injections before each daily block of trials. Following attainment of criterion, the reinforcement contingencies were altered according to a non-reversal shift design, so that the alternative (i.e. either spatial or visual) set of cues now predicted reward. Rats treated with idazoxan were not impaired in the acquisition of either the spatial or visual discrimination task, but they were impaired in both forms of non-reversal shift. These deficits are interpreted as resulting from narrowed attention in idazoxan-treated rats, thus supporting a selective attention hypothesis of locus coeruleus function.

Clonidine-induced antagonism of norepinephrine modulates the attentional processes involved in peak-interval timing.

Duke University The effects of the a2-agonist clonidine and the a2-antagonist idazoxan were studied with emphasis on the attentional mechanisms subserving interval-timing behavior. Administration of clonidine (0.015 mg/kg IP) to rats trained on a 20-s peak-interval (PI) timing procedure caused a rightward shift in peak functions, whereas idazoxan (0.15 mg/kg IP) caused a leftward shift. Rats were also trained on 10-s and 30-s baseline PI timing procedures in combination with the prior-entry and prior-entry reversal versions of this task that produced leftward shifts and rightward shifts relative to baseline training, respectively. Clonidine (0.025 mg/kg IP) produced a rightward shift in peak functions for all of these behavioral procedures. Taken together, these horizontal shifts in the peak functions indicate a decrease (leftward shift) or an increase (rightward shift) in the latency to start the internal clock that is influenced both by the attentional demands of the task and the effective level of brain norepinephrine. Cognitive accounts of information processing divide atten- tion into three major functions: orienting to sensory events, detecting signals for conscious processing, and maintaining an alert state (Posner & Petersen, 1990). The allocation of attention for the detection of signals for conscious processing may result in the subject attending to the expected spatial location, temporal location, or sensory modality of the signal. As a consequence, if the signal is either in an unexpected location or of an unexpected modality, it will not be processed as rapidly. In contrast, if attention is allocated to maintaining a general state of alertness or arousal, then any signal that is of sufficient intensity will engage conscious processing. An information-processing model of interval timing suggests Trevor B. Penney, Department of Psychology, Columbia University; Mark D. Holder, Department of Psychology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada and Department of Psychology, Okanagan University College, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada; Warren H. Meck, Department of Psychology: Experimental, Duke University. This research was supported in part by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (A1221). Preliminary reports based on this work were presented at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Arlington, Virginia (Penney, Holder, M Meck, 1984). Data from human event-related potential (ERP) para- digms (e.g., Gratton et al., 1990) and animal timing tasks (Meck, 1984) suggest that warning signals serve to prime perceptual processing. Consequently, the use of warning signals can be used to influence a subject's expectation of thc stimulus properties (e.g., modality) of a forthcoming signal presentation. Central nervous system norepinephrine (NE) may accentu- ate activity of neurons that are transmitting the presence of significant stimuli and inhibit the activity of other neurons (Kety, 1970). This could be interpreted as an improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio or an enhancement of sclectivc attention. The selective attention hypothesis was initially based on the behavioral results of lesions to the dorsal noradrenergic bundle (DNAB; e.g., Mason, 1980; Robbins, Everitt, Cole, Archer, & Mohammed, 1985). This pathway originates in the pontine nucleus of the locus coeruleus (LC) and provides innervation to the spinal cord, cerebellum, and many forebrain areas including the caudate-putamen (Mason, 1980). The LC may act as an important gating mechanism for 82

What makes information important and its influence on learning in self-directed study.

This study investigated what makes text-based information important and what is its influence on learning. College students studied an expository text following their own self-directed study procedures. Data from Exp. 1 (n = 60) and Exp. 2 (n = 40) showed that information was considered important if it (a) began and ended text, (b) began a paragraph, (c) appeared at somewhat equal intervals in text, and (d) contained enumerations of concepts. Subjects recalled information that (a) began the text and (b) contained examples of enumerations. It appeared that text-based variables established what was important and this influenced learning. Implications for the selective attention hypothesis and its volume-of-attention corollary, the cycles hypothesis, and the slot-filling hypothesis are discussed.

A stages-of-information approach to hyperactivity.

In a memory search task with context recognition, three groups of children were examined: hyperactives, somewhat hyperactives and controls. It was found that the hyperactive groups differed from controls at the intercept of reaction time and not the slope. This was interpreted as evidence against a selective attention hypothesis in hyperactivity and evidence of either an 'encoding' or a response organization deficit. The unexpected slower and less accurate performance of somewhat hyperactives than those rated as hyperactives may have been due to the higher rating of variable task application in the former than in the latter.

Generic overjustification: The interaction of extrinsic rewards

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that the value of one extrinsic reward will be undermined when another extrinsic reward is made contingent upon the same activity. Subjects were assigned to one of three experimental groups. Some were paid a contingent monetary reward for engaging in a monotonous and boring activity and were then given the opportunity to continue to work voluntarily for additional payment. Others were given both money and extra experimental credit for the required task, and were likewise offered additional pay for voluntary extra work. A third group of subjects received money for the required task, but were given no additional rewards for extra work. It was observed that the money + credit subjects did less extra work for pay than the money-only subjects. They also rated the monetary reward as having been of less value to them. Subjects who were paid during the initial task session but not for extra work did less additional work than those who were paid in both sessions, but did not differ in their ratings of the value of the monetary reward. It is concluded that extrinsic rewards are nonadditive, and that current models of undermined rewards are too limited to account for this phenomenon. A selective attention hypothesis is advanced as an alternative.

Effects of the organization of text on memory: Texts of two implications of a selective attention hypothesis.

Effects of the organization of text on memory: Texts of two implications of a selective attention hypothesis.

Effects of the organization of text on memory: Texts of two implications of a selective attention hypothesis.

Effects of the organization of text on memory: Texts of two implications of a selective attention hypothesis.

Sex-Role Learning: A Test of the Selective Attention Hypothesis

BRYAN, JANICE WESTLUND, and LURIA, ZELLA. Sex-Role Learning: A Test of the Selective Attention Hypothesis. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 49, 13-23. Both social learning and cognitivedevelopmental theories propose that acquisition of sex-role knowledge depends upon some mechanism of selective attention to same-sex models. In 2 experiments, pictures of a male and female model performing matched acts were shown, and visual attention was assessed by the method of feedback electroencephalography (EEG). Recall and preference for the slides were also measured. In experiments 1 and 2, 48 children (ages 5-6 and 9-10) viewed models performing sex-appropriate, sex-inappropriate, and sex-neutral tasks. No difference was found in the EEG attentional measures for the male versus female slides. In experiment 1 the children recalled and preferred the same-sex task and preferred the same-sex model. In experiment 2 the children, regardless of gender, recalled more of the male than the female slides. Males preferred the male tasks while females preferred male and female tasks equally. It was concluded that there is no evidence in these studies for selective attention to same-sex models. It was shown with appropriate comparison conditions that the finding of no difference (null) could not be attributed to insensitivity of the alpha-blocking response as an index of visual attention: significant differences of alpha blocking were associated with shifts of visual attention which were included as control conditions in the experiments.

The late positive component of the auditory evoked potential in a shared reading and counting task

Eight subjects were presented with a series of low and high tones. When they were instructed to ignore the tones and perform a reading task, the late positive component (LPC) of the evoked EEG was absent. Both tones, however, produced LPCs when S counted the higher tone, with the counted tone showing greater LPC amplitude. Under a shared reading and counting task, LPC amplitudes were reduced and comparable to those observed in the read-only condition. These results were interpreted as most consistent with a selective attention hypothesis of the LPC.