Spatial distribution of visual attention: perceptual sensitivity and response latency

The role of the attention focus in the visual information processing underlying saccadic adaptation

Three experiments were performed to determine how an error signal for driving saccadic adaptation is derived from visual information processing. The first experiment demonstrated that an intrasaccadic displacement of a visual background does not influence saccadic adaptation when a small foveal target is used. The second experiment showed that when a different type of target, a 4.8 deg annulus, is used an intrasaccadic background shift influences the adaptive process. The third experiment showed that the size of the saccade target determines the size of the attention focus around the time of a saccade. These findings suggest that the attention focus selects the visual information used for a trans-saccadic comparison in order to generate the error signal.

Nonlinear system identification and overparameterization effects in multisensory evoked potential studies

Traditional signal processing techniques have not been suitable in establishing contributions from different sensory paths in multisensory evoked potentials. In this paper, a nonlinear modeling technique is proposed to demonstrate the possible mechanisms of interaction between sensory paths. The nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous inputs (NARX) model is explored to establish a relationship between electrical activities of the brain obtained by unimodal and by bimodal stimulation. The intersensory phenomenon concept is extended using nonlinear system theory and applied to show the possible interactions between the visual and auditory sensory paths. In addition, the paper addresses the compensation phenomenon caused by overparameterization in the NARX algorithm when it is applied to event-related potentials. It is hoped that the nonlinear modeling approach will generate hypotheses about the intersensory interaction phenomenon, improving and advancing its theoretical formulation.

Attention and spatial selection: electrophysiological evidence for modulation by perceptual load

Behavioral data have suggested that perceptual load can modulate spatial selection by influencing the allocation of attentional resources at perceptual-level processing stages (Lavie & Tsal, 1994). To directly test this hypothesis, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded for both low- and high-perceptual-load targets in a probabilistic spatial cuing paradigm. The results from three experiments showed that, as measured by the lateral occipital P1 and N1 ERP components, the magnitude of spatially selective processing in extrastriate visual cortex increased with perceptual load. Furthermore, these effects on spatial selection were found in the P1 at lower levels of perceptual load than in the N1. The ERP data thus provide direct electrophysiological support for proposals that link perceptual load to early spatial selection in visual processing. However, our findings suggest a relatively broader model--where perceptual load is but one of many factors mediating early selection.

Visuospatial attention: beyond a spotlight model

Much of the research in visual attention has been driven by the spotlight metaphor. This metaphor has been useful over many years for generating experimental questions in attention research. However, theories and models of visual selection have reached such a level of complexity that debate now centers around more specific questions about the nature of attention. In this review, the general question "Is visual attention like a spotlight?" is broken down into seven specific questions concerning the nature of visual attention, and the evidence relevant to each is examined. The answers to these specific questions provide important clues about why visual selection is necessary and what purpose attention plays in visual cognition.

Age similarities in the inertial properties of attention

Adult age differences in the mode of allocation of visual attention were investigated, using a visual search task with a circular display containing one target letter and seven distractor letters. In two experiments, a total of 56 younger adults (M = 20 years) and 56 older adults (M = 66 years) searched for a target appearing with equal probability at one of two cued locations. The first cue appeared 115 msec before display onset, and the second cue appeared with display onset; distance between the two cued locations was varied. Target identification performance indicated that attention was inertial, in that reaction time for second-cued targets was related either to the area of the portion of the visual field containing possible target locations or to the mean path length of a serial self-terminating search. There were no age-related decrements in the allocation of visual attention.

Colour and polarity contributions to global motion perception

The influence of the image segmentation cues based on colour and polarity on a motion coherence task were examined. In line with previous reports, when the signal and noise were given unique identities thresholds were much lower than when they were the same, suggesting a strong influence of segmentation. In another paradigm extra noise elements that differed in colour or polarity interfered despite this perceptual segmentation. We suggest that the results when signal and noise have unique identities are attributable to the subjects' ability to attend to a particular location(s) in space. When this strategy was eliminated by presenting the stimuli in the near-periphery or very briefly the effect of the colour or polarity information disappears.

Understanding diverse effects of visual attention with the VAP-filters metaphor

The Variable and Permeable Filters (VAP-Filters) metaphor is presented with an explanation of its advantages over other popular metaphors in accounting for attention effects in many different research paradigms. Research from laboratories of the author and others are discussed briefly and shown to result in diverse facilitatory and inhibitory attention effects on visual perception. All of these effects are consistent with the VAP-Filters metaphor.

Facilitatory or inhibitory nontarget effects in the location-cuing paradigm

The effect of nontargets on the identification of targets in the location-cuing paradigm was investigated in order to determine whether observers consistently allocate their attention to a validly cued location and whether the effect of nontargets is to facilitate or to inhibit performance. In four experiments, the effects of a single matching nontarget or a single nonmatching nontarget were compared. In each experiment, it was shown that observers consistently allocate their attention to a cued location when a precue appears and that performance is inhibited more by nonmatching nontargets in the display than it is facilitated by matching nontargets.