Can the decomposition of attention clarify some clinical issues?

The interaction of cognitive and stimulus-response processes in the control of behaviour

It is argued that both stimulus-response (S-R) and cognitive theories of learning and behaviour capture part of the truth, in that these terms involve two different types of process that are jointly responsible for the control of behaviour. The proposal that both processes coexist is investigated in the context of the production of behaviour. Evidence is presented to show that the weighting attached to S-R and cognitive processes can change as a function of (a) development; (b) experience; and (c) pathology. A model is proposed which is designed to sketch some ideas on how S-R and cognitive processes jointly determine behaviour, and it is related to the notion of behavioural hierarchy. It is argued that the model can help to develop a synthesis between psychology, ethology and neuroscience.

ERPs and Psychopathology. I. Behavioral process issues

The clinical study of ERPs has an inherent defect--a self-selection of clinical populations that hampers equating of clinically defined groups on factors extraneous to the independent variables. Such ex post facto studies increase the likelihood of confounding variables in the interpretation of findings. Hence, the development of lawful relationships between clinical variables and ERPs is impeded and the fulfillment of description, explanation, prediction, and control in brain science is thwarted. Proper methodologies and theory development can increase the likelihood of establishing these lawful relationships. One methodology of potential value in the clinical application of ERPs, particularly in studies of aging, is that of divided attention. Two promising theoretical developments in the understanding of brain functioning and aging are the distraction-arousal hypothesis and the controlled-automatic attention model. The evaluation of ERPs in the study of brain-behavior relations in clinical populations might be facilitated by the differentiation of concurrent, predictive, content, and construct validities.