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Fan C, Zinchenko A, Chen L, Wu J, Qian Y, Zang X. Invariant contexts reduce response time variability in visual search in an age-specific way: A comparison of children, teenagers, and adults. Atten Percept Psychophys 2024:10.3758/s13414-024-02926-2. [PMID: 38992319 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-024-02926-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/15/2024] [Indexed: 07/13/2024]
Abstract
Contextual cueing is a phenomenon in which repeatedly encountered arrays of items can enhance the visual search for a target item. This is widely attributed to attentional guidance driven by contextual memory acquired during visual search. Some studies suggest that children may have an immature ability to use contextual cues compared to adults, while others argue that contextual learning capacity is similar across ages. To test the development of context-guided attention, this study compared contextual cueing effects among three age groups: adults (aged 18-33 years, N = 32), teenagers (aged 15-17 years, N = 41), and younger children (aged 8-9 years, N = 43). Moreover, this study introduced a measure of response time variability that tracks fluctuations in response time throughout the experiment, in addition to the conventional analysis of response times. The results showed that all age groups demonstrated significantly faster responses in repeated than non-repeated search contexts. Notably, adults and teenagers exhibited smaller response time variability in repeated contexts than in non-repeated ones, while younger children did not. This implies that children are less efficient at consolidating contextual information into a stable memory representation, which may lead to less stable attentional guidance during visual search.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chengyu Fan
- Center for Cognition and Brain Disorders, Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 310015, China
- Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, Hangzhou, 310015, China
- Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory for Research in Early Development and Childcare, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China
- Department Psychologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80802, Munich, Germany
| | - Artyom Zinchenko
- Department Psychologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80802, Munich, Germany
| | - Lihan Chen
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
- National Engineering Laboratory for Big Data Analysis and Applications, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
| | - Jiao Wu
- Department Psychologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80802, Munich, Germany
| | - Yeke Qian
- Center for Cognition and Brain Disorders, Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 310015, China
- Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, Hangzhou, 310015, China
- Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory for Research in Early Development and Childcare, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China
| | - Xuelian Zang
- Center for Cognition and Brain Disorders, Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 310015, China.
- Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, Hangzhou, 310015, China.
- Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory for Research in Early Development and Childcare, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China.
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Yao Y, Luo R, Fan C, Qian Y, Zang X. Age-related contextual cueing features are more evident in reaction variability than in reaction time. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2024:17470218241241954. [PMID: 38485526 DOI: 10.1177/17470218241241954] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2024]
Abstract
Visual-spatial contextual cueing learning underpins the daily lives of older adults, enabling them to navigate their surroundings, perform daily activities, and maintain cognitive function. While the contextual cueing effect has received increasing attention from researchers, the relationship between this cognitive ability and healthy ageing remains controversial. To investigate whether visual-spatial contextual cueing learning declines with age, we examined the contextual learning patterns of older (60-71 years old) and younger adults (18-26 years old) using a contextual-guided visual search paradigm and response variability measurements. We observed significant contextual learning effects in both age groups, impacting response speed and variability, with these effects persisting for at least 24 days. However, older adults required more repetitions and memorised fewer repeated stimuli during initial learning. Interestingly, their long-term memory maintenance appeared stronger, as their contextual facilitation persisted in both response speed and variability, while younger adults only persisted in response speed but not variability. Overall, our results suggest an age-related complex and diverse contextual cueing pattern, with older adults showing weaker learning but stronger long-term memory maintenance compared with younger adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yipeng Yao
- Center for Cognition and Brain Disorders, The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
- School of Psychology, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China
| | - Rong Luo
- School of Psychology, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China
| | - Chengyu Fan
- Center for Cognition and Brain Disorders, The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
- Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, Hangzhou, China
- Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory for Research in Early Development and Childcare, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Yeke Qian
- Center for Cognition and Brain Disorders, The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
- Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, Hangzhou, China
- Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory for Research in Early Development and Childcare, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Xuelian Zang
- Center for Cognition and Brain Disorders, The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
- Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, Hangzhou, China
- Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory for Research in Early Development and Childcare, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
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3
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Biggs AT, Pettijohn KA, Blacker KJ. Contextual cueing during lethal force training: How target design and repetition can alter threat assessments. MILITARY PSYCHOLOGY 2024; 36:353-365. [PMID: 38661462 PMCID: PMC11057649 DOI: 10.1080/08995605.2023.2178785] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2020] [Accepted: 04/27/2021] [Indexed: 03/06/2023]
Abstract
Lethal force training requires individuals to make threat assessments, which involves holistic scenario processing to identify potential threats. Photorealistic targets can make threat/non-threat judgments substantially more genuine and challenging compared to simple cardboard or silhouette targets. Unfortunately, repeated target use also brings unintended consequences that could invalidate threat assessment processes conducted during training. Contextually rich or unique targets could be implicitly memorable in a way that allows observers to recall weapon locations rather than forcing observers to conduct a naturalistic assessment. Experiment 1 demonstrated robust contextual cueing effects in a well-established shoot/don't-shoot stimulus set, and Experiment 2 extended this finding from complex scene stimuli to simple actor-only stimuli. Experiment 3 demonstrated that these effects also occurred among trained professionals using rifles rather than computer-based tasks. Taken together, these findings demonstrate the potential for uncontrolled target repetition to alter the fundamental processes of threat assessment during lethal force training.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam T. Biggs
- Medical Department, Naval Special Warfare Command, Coronado, California
| | - Kyle A. Pettijohn
- Aeromedical Department, Naval Medical Research Unit – Dayton, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio
| | - Kara J. Blacker
- Aeromedical Department, Naval Medical Research Unit – Dayton, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio
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Nagy B, Kojouharova P, Protzner AB, Gaál ZA. Investigating the Effect of Contextual Cueing with Face Stimuli on Electrophysiological Measures in Younger and Older Adults. J Cogn Neurosci 2024; 36:776-799. [PMID: 38437174 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/06/2024]
Abstract
Extracting repeated patterns from our surroundings plays a crucial role in contextualizing information, making predictions, and guiding our behavior implicitly. Previous research showed that contextual cueing enhances visual search performance in younger adults. In this study, we investigated whether contextual cueing could also improve older adults' performance and whether age-related differences in the neural processes underlying implicit contextual learning could be detected. Twenty-four younger and 25 older participants performed a visual search task with contextual cueing. Contextual information was generated using repeated face configurations alongside random new configurations. We measured RT difference between new and repeated configurations; ERPs to uncover the neural processes underlying contextual cueing for early (N2pc), intermediate (P3b), and late (r-LRP) processes; and multiscale entropy and spectral power density analyses to examine neural dynamics. Both younger and older adults showed similar contextual cueing benefits in their visual search efficiency at the behavioral level. In addition, they showed similar patterns regarding contextual information processing: Repeated face configurations evoked decreased finer timescale entropy (1-20 msec) and higher frequency band power (13-30 Hz) compared with new configurations. However, we detected age-related differences in ERPs: Younger, but not older adults, had larger N2pc and P3b components for repeated compared with new configurations. These results suggest that contextual cueing remains intact with aging. Although attention- and target-evaluation-related ERPs differed between the age groups, the neural dynamics of contextual learning were preserved with aging, as both age groups increasingly utilized more globally grouped representations for repeated face configurations during the learning process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Boglárka Nagy
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, HUN-REN Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
- Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Petia Kojouharova
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, HUN-REN Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Andrea B Protzner
- Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| | - Zsófia Anna Gaál
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, HUN-REN Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
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Serino G, Mareschal D, Scerif G, Kirkham N. Playing hide and seek: Contextual regularity learning develops between 3 and 5 years of age. J Exp Child Psychol 2024; 238:105795. [PMID: 37862788 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105795] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2023] [Revised: 09/20/2023] [Accepted: 09/21/2023] [Indexed: 10/22/2023]
Abstract
The ability to acquire contextual regularities is fundamental in everyday life because it helps us to navigate the environment, directing our attention where relevant events are more likely to occur. Sensitivity to spatial regularities has been largely reported from infancy. Nevertheless, it is currently unclear when children can use this rapidly acquired contextual knowledge to guide their behavior. Evidence of this ability is indeed mixed in school-aged children and, to date, it has never been explored in younger children and toddlers. The current study investigated the development of contextual regularity learning in children aged 3 to 5 years. To this aim, we designed a new contextual learning paradigm in which young children were presented with recurring configurations of bushes and were asked to guess behind which bush a cartoon monkey was hiding. In a series of two experiments, we manipulated the relevance of color and visuospatial cues for the underlying task goal and tested how this affected young children's behavior. Our results bridge the gap between the infant and adult literatures, showing that sensitivity to spatial configurations persists from infancy to childhood, but it is only around the fifth year of life that children naturally start to integrate multiple cues to guide their behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Serino
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London WC1E 7HX, UK.
| | - Denis Mareschal
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London WC1E 7HX, UK
| | - Gaia Scerif
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK
| | - Natasha Kirkham
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London WC1E 7HX, UK
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Sakata C, Ueda Y, Moriguchi Y. The contextual cueing effect disappears during joint search in preschool children. J Exp Child Psychol 2023; 227:105592. [PMID: 36442326 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105592] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2022] [Revised: 11/04/2022] [Accepted: 11/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
During preschool years, children's interacting with others increases. One of the involved developmental skills is task co-representation, through which children aged 5 years and older represent a partner's task in a similar way to their own task. In adults, task co-representation makes participants attend to and form memories of objects relevant to both their own task and their partner's task; however, it is unclear whether children can also form such memories. In Experiment 1, we examined the memory facilitation of joint search using a contextual cueing effect paradigm. Children were presented with search displays repeatedly with the same or random layouts and searched and responded to the target either alone (the single group; n = 32; Mage = 73.6 months, range = 61-80) or with their parent (the joint group; n = 32; Mage = 74.3 months, range = 64-81). Results showed that the search with the same layouts was faster than that with the random layouts for the single group, indicating that children form associative memories of target and distractors relevant to their own task. For the joint group, this effect was not statistically different from that of the single group, with exploratory analysis suggesting that it was disrupted. In Experiment 2, children performed the search with a peer (n = 32; Mage = 72.7 months, range = 67-79) and the effect was also not found. Our findings suggest that the self's and partner's tasks are represented but might not be incorporated into associative memory in 5- and 6-year-old children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chifumi Sakata
- Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.
| | - Yoshiyuki Ueda
- Institute for the Future of Human Society, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
| | - Yusuke Moriguchi
- Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
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Saito A, Sato W, Yoshikawa S. Rapid detection of neutral faces associated with emotional value among older adults. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2022; 77:1219-1228. [PMID: 35137048 DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbac009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Previous studies using visual search paradigms have provided inconsistent results regarding rapid detection of emotional faces among older adults. Furthermore, it is uncertain whether the emotional significance of the faces contributes to efficient searches for emotional faces due to the possible confounding effects of visual saliency. We addressed this issue by excluding the influence of visual factors and examined older adults' ability to detect faces with emotional meaning. METHOD We used an associative learning procedure in which neutral faces were paired with monetary reward or punishment, such that the neutral faces acquired positive or negative emotional value. Older participants completed the associative learning task and then engaged in a visual search task, in which previously learned neutral faces were presented as discrepant faces among newly presented neutral distractor faces. Data of young adults from a previous study that used identical experimental procedures were also analyzed. RESULTS Older participants exhibited lower learning ability than young participants. However, older adults who were successful at learning were able to detect neutral faces associated with reward or punishment more rapidly than those without monetary outcomes, similar to the pattern observed for young adults. DISCUSSION The results suggest that acquired emotional value promotes the detection of value-associated neutral faces among older adults who succeed at learning. It is therefore possible that the ability to detect faces that evoke emotions is preserved in older adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Akie Saito
- Psychological Process Research Team, Guardian Robot Project, RIKEN, 2-2-2 Hikaridai, Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto 619-0288, Japan
| | - Wataru Sato
- Psychological Process Research Team, Guardian Robot Project, RIKEN, 2-2-2 Hikaridai, Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto 619-0288, Japan.,Field Science Education and Research Center, Kyoto University, Oiwake-cho, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
| | - Sakiko Yoshikawa
- Field Science Education and Research Center, Kyoto University, Oiwake-cho, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.,Faculty of Art and Design, Kyoto University of The Arts, 2-116 Uryuuzan, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
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8
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The Role of Working Memory in Implicit Memory: A Developmental Perspective. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2020.100929] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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9
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Doherty BR, Fraser A, Nobre AC, Scerif G. The functional consequences of social attention on memory precision and on memory-guided orienting in development. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2019; 36:100625. [PMID: 30844682 PMCID: PMC6969233 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100625] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2018] [Revised: 01/11/2019] [Accepted: 02/04/2019] [Indexed: 11/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Adults are slower at locating targets in naturalistic scenes containing a social distractor compared to an equally salient non-social distractor, and their subsequent memory for targets in social scenes is poorer. Therefore, adults’ social biases affect not only attention, but also their memory. Six-to-ten year-old children and young adults took part in the current study, employing a combination of behavioural and eye-tracking measures. Social stimuli in naturalistic scenes distracted both children and adults during visual search, as demonstrated by their gaze behavior and search times. In addition, eye-tracking revealed even greater attentional capture by social distractors for children. Memory for targets was worse in social compared to non-social scenes. Intriguingly, children demonstrated overall better memory precision than adults. Finally, when participants detected previously learnt targets within visual scenes, adults were slower for targets appearing at unexpected (invalid) locations within social scenes compared to non-social scenes, but this was not the case for children. In their entirety, these findings suggest that the interplay between social attentional biases, memory and memory-guided attention is complex and modulated by age-related differences. Complementary methodologies in developmental cognitive neuroscience shed light on the mechanisms through which social attention and memory interact over development.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Alexander Fraser
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Anna Christina Nobre
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom; Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Gaia Scerif
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
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An J, Wen W, Wu Z, Wan X. Differential inter-trial effects in the visual search of children, adolescents, and young adults. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2018; 191:171-178. [PMID: 30286429 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.09.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2018] [Revised: 09/14/2018] [Accepted: 09/26/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022] Open
Abstract
We examined the age-related variation in one type of inter-trial effect of visual search, the distractor previewing effect (DPE), in affectively neutral and affectively charged contexts. In Experiment 1, children, adolescents, and young adults were faster to identify the shape of a color target when the color of the current distractors had already been previewed than when the target had been previewed in the preceding target-absent trial, indicative of a color-based DPE. The results revealed a greater DPE in children than in adolescents and young adults, but it can be attributed to children's slower RTs than the other two groups. In Experiment 2, children, adolescents, and young adults were instructed to respond to a schematic face that was different from the other two faces. Young adults were faster in searching for a threatening face among friendly ones when they had previewed a target-absent display consisting of friendly faces than that of threatening faces, indicating an emotional DPE. By contrast, children showed a reversed DPE under the same condition, whereas adolescents showed no DPE. Taken together, these results suggested that the three age groups were all able to create an inhibitory attentional bias on the basis of trial history in affectively neutral context, whereas children and adolescents were not able to create such an inhibitory attentional bias in affectively charged contexts in the same way as adults did. These findings implied that the development of attentional inhibition abilities in affectively charged contexts might be delayed compared to those in affectively neutral contexts.
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Nussenbaum K, Scerif G, Nobre AC. Differential Effects of Salient Visual Events on Memory-Guided Attention in Adults and Children. Child Dev 2018; 90:1369-1388. [PMID: 30295321 PMCID: PMC6767380 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Both salient visual events and scene‐based memories can influence attention, but it is unclear how they interact in children and adults. In Experiment 1, children (N = 27; ages 7–12) were faster to discriminate targets when they appeared at the same versus different location as they had previously learned or as a salient visual event. In contrast, adults (N = 30; ages 18–31) responded faster only when cued by visual events. While Experiment 2 confirmed that adults (N = 27) can use memories to orient attention, Experiment 3 showed that, even in the absence of visual events, the effects of memories on attention were larger in children (N = 27) versus adults (N = 28). These findings suggest that memories may be a robust source of influence on children's attention.
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12
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Tummeltshammer K, Amso D. Top-down contextual knowledge guides visual attention in infancy. Dev Sci 2018; 21:e12599. [PMID: 29071811 PMCID: PMC5920787 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12599] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2016] [Accepted: 06/23/2017] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
The visual context in which an object or face resides can provide useful top-down information for guiding attention orienting, object recognition, and visual search. Although infants have demonstrated sensitivity to covariation in spatial arrays, it is presently unclear whether they can use rapidly acquired contextual knowledge to guide attention during visual search. In this eye-tracking experiment, 6- and 10-month-old infants searched for a target face hidden among colorful distracter shapes. Targets appeared in Old or New visual contexts, depending on whether the visual search arrays (defined by the spatial configuration, shape and color of component items in the search display) were repeated or newly generated throughout the experiment. Targets in Old contexts appeared in the same location within the same configuration, such that context covaried with target location. Both 6- and 10-month-olds successfully distinguished between Old and New contexts, exhibiting faster search times, fewer looks at distracters, and more anticipation of targets when contexts repeated. This initial demonstration of contextual cueing effects in infants indicates that they can use top-down information to facilitate orienting during memory-guided visual search.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristen Tummeltshammer
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| | - Dima Amso
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
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West G, Vadillo MA, Shanks DR, Hulme C. The procedural learning deficit hypothesis of language learning disorders: we see some problems. Dev Sci 2017; 21. [PMID: 28256101 PMCID: PMC5888158 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12552] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2016] [Accepted: 01/01/2017] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Impaired procedural learning has been suggested as a possible cause of developmental dyslexia (DD) and specific language impairment (SLI). This study examined the relationship between measures of verbal and non-verbal implicit and explicit learning and measures of language, literacy and arithmetic attainment in a large sample of 7 to 8-year-old children. Measures of verbal explicit learning were correlated with measures of attainment. In contrast, no relationships between measures of implicit learning and attainment were found. Critically, the reliability of the implicit learning tasks was poor. Our results show that measures of procedural learning, as currently used, are typically unreliable and insensitive to individual differences. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnvV-BvNWSo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gillian West
- Department of Language and Cognition, University College London, UK
| | - Miguel A Vadillo
- Department of Primary Care and Public Health Sciences, King's College London, UK
| | - David R Shanks
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, UK
| | - Charles Hulme
- Department of Language and Cognition, University College London, UK
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14
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Erel H, Levy DA. Orienting of visual attention in aging. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2016; 69:357-80. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.08.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2015] [Revised: 08/01/2016] [Accepted: 08/06/2016] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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15
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16
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Salvato G, Patai EZ, Nobre AC. Preserved memory-based orienting of attention with impaired explicit memory in healthy ageing. Cortex 2015; 74:67-78. [PMID: 26649914 PMCID: PMC4729287 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.10.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2015] [Revised: 09/08/2015] [Accepted: 10/27/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
It is increasingly recognised that spatial contextual long-term memory (LTM) prepares neural activity for guiding visuo-spatial attention in a proactive manner. In the current study, we investigated whether the decline in explicit memory observed in healthy ageing would compromise this mechanism. We compared the behavioural performance of younger and older participants on learning new contextual memories, on orienting visual attention based on these learnt contextual associations, and on explicit recall of contextual memories. We found a striking dissociation between older versus younger participants in the relationship between the ability to retrieve contextual memories versus the ability to use these to guide attention to enhance performance on a target-detection task. Older participants showed significant deficits in the explicit retrieval task, but their behavioural benefits from memory-based orienting of attention were equivalent to those in young participants. Furthermore, memory-based orienting correlated significantly with explicit contextual LTM in younger adults but not in older adults. These results suggest that explicit memory deficits in ageing might not compromise initial perception and encoding of events. Importantly, the results also shed light on the mechanisms of memory-guided attention, suggesting that explicit contextual memories are not necessary.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gerardo Salvato
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Department of Brain and Behavioural Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy; NeuroMi, Milan Centre for Neuroscience, Italy
| | - Eva Z Patai
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Anna C Nobre
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
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17
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Yang Y, Merrill EC. The impact of signal-to-noise ratio on contextual cueing in children and adults. J Exp Child Psychol 2015; 132:65-83. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2014.12.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2014] [Revised: 12/19/2014] [Accepted: 12/20/2014] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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18
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Yang Y, Merrill EC. Age-related similarities in contextual cueing in the presence of unpredictive distracters. The Journal of Genetic Psychology 2015; 176:11-25. [PMID: 25650790 DOI: 10.1080/00221325.2014.995585] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Contextual cueing effects of 6-8-year-old children, 10-12-year-old-children, and college students were compared under conditions in which some of the distracters in the search displays predicted the location of the target and other distracters did not. More specifically, the percent of distracters that predicted the location of the target varied across three conditions (100%, 67%, and 33%). Previous research had indicated that children are impacted more than adults when the percent of predictive distracters is relatively low. However, that research included new displays as well as repeated displays as participants were implicitly learning the association between the predictive distracters and the target. This re-evaluation did not introduce new display until a separate test phase. Results suggested that all three age groups demonstrated significant and comparable contextual cueing effects across all three signal-to-noise ratio conditions. Hence, children appear to possess the general ability to extract and remember information associated with spatial regularities in the presence of considerable spatial noise. In addition, contextual cueing effects were linked to improvements in search efficiency for all groups in this study, providing another degree of similarity across variations in age.
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Davis M, Merrill EC, Conners FA, Roskos B. Patterns of differences in wayfinding performance and correlations among abilities between persons with and without Down syndrome and typically developing children. Front Psychol 2014; 5:1446. [PMID: 25566127 PMCID: PMC4267194 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01446] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2014] [Accepted: 11/26/2014] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Down syndrome (DS) impacts several brain regions including the hippocampus and surrounding structures that have responsibility for important aspects of navigation and wayfinding. Hence it is reasonable to expect that DS may result in a reduced ability to engage in these skills. Two experiments are reported that evaluated route-learning of youth with DS, youth with intellectual disability (ID) and not DS, and typically developing (TD) children matched on mental age (MA). In both experiments, participants learned routes with eight choice point presented via computer. Several objects were placed along the route that could be used as landmarks. Participants navigated the route once with turn indicators pointing the way and then retraced the route without them. In Experiment 1 we found that the TD children and ID participants performed very similarly. They learned the route in the same number of attempts, committed the same number of errors while learning the route, and recalled approximately the same number of landmarks. The participants with DS performed significantly worse on both measures of navigation (attempts and errors) and also recalled significantly fewer landmarks. In Experiment 2, we attempted to reduce TD and ID vs DS differences by focusing participants’ attention on the landmarks. Half of the participants in each group were instructed to identify the landmarks as they passed them the first time. The participants with DS again committed more errors than the participants in the ID and TD groups in the navigation task. In addition, they recalled fewer landmarks. While landmark identification improved landmark memory for both groups, it did not have a significant impact on navigation. Participants with DS still performed more poorly than did the TD and ID participants. Of additional interest, we observed that the performance of persons with DS correlated with different ability measures than did the performance of the other groups. The results the two experiments point to a problem in navigation for persons with DS that exceeds expectations based solely on intellectual level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Megan Davis
- Department of Psychology, The University of Alabama , Tuscaloosa, AL, USA
| | - Edward C Merrill
- Department of Psychology, The University of Alabama , Tuscaloosa, AL, USA
| | - Frances A Conners
- Department of Psychology, The University of Alabama , Tuscaloosa, AL, USA
| | - Beverly Roskos
- Department of Psychology, The University of Alabama , Tuscaloosa, AL, USA
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Merrill EC, Conners FA, Yang Y, Weathington D. The acquisition of contextual cueing effects by persons with and without intellectual disability. RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES 2014; 35:2341-2351. [PMID: 24953040 DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2014.05.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2014] [Revised: 05/27/2014] [Accepted: 05/29/2014] [Indexed: 06/03/2023]
Abstract
Two experiments were conducted to compare the acquisition of contextual cueing effects of adolescents and young adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) relative to typically developing children and young adults. Contextual cueing reflects an implicit, memory based attention guidance mechanism that results in faster search for target locations that have been previously experienced in a predictable context. In the study, participants located a target stimulus embedded in a context of numerous distracter stimuli. During a learning phase, the location of the target was predictable from the location of the distracters in the search displays. We then compared response times to locating predictable relative to unpredictable targets presented in a test phase. In Experiment 1, all of the distracters predicted the location of the target. In Experiment 2, half of the distracters predicted the location of the target while the other half varied randomly. The participants with ID exhibited significant contextual facilitation in both experiments, with the magnitude of facilitation being similar to that of the typically developing (TD) children and adults. We concluded that deficiencies in contextual cueing are not necessarily associated with low measured intelligence that results in a classification of ID.
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Yang Y, Merrill EC. The impact of distracter–target similarity on contextual cueing effects of children and adults. J Exp Child Psychol 2014; 121:42-62. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2013.10.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2012] [Revised: 10/17/2013] [Accepted: 10/17/2013] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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Reward speeds up and increases consistency of visual selective attention: a lifespan comparison. COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2014; 14:659-71. [DOI: 10.3758/s13415-014-0273-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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