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van Moorselaar D, Theeuwes J. Spatial transfer of object-based statistical learning. Atten Percept Psychophys 2024; 86:768-775. [PMID: 38316722 PMCID: PMC11063099 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-024-02852-3] [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] [Accepted: 01/23/2024] [Indexed: 02/07/2024]
Abstract
A large number of recent studies have demonstrated that efficient attentional selection depends to a large extent on the ability to extract regularities present in the environment. Through statistical learning, attentional selection is facilitated by directing attention to locations in space that were relevant in the past while suppressing locations that previously were distracting. The current study shows that we are not only able to learn to prioritize locations in space but also locations within objects independent of space. Participants learned that within a specific object, particular locations within the object were more likely to contain relevant information than other locations. The current results show that this learned prioritization was bound to the object as the learned bias to prioritize a specific location within the object stayed in place even when the object moved to a completely different location in space. We conclude that in addition to spatial attention prioritization of locations in space, it is also possible to learn to prioritize relevant locations within specific objects. The current findings have implications for the inferred spatial priority map of attentional weights as this map cannot be strictly retinotopically organized.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dirk van Moorselaar
- Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
- Institute of Brain and Behaviour Amsterdam (iBBA), Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
| | - Jan Theeuwes
- Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Institute of Brain and Behaviour Amsterdam (iBBA), Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- William James Centre for Research, ISPA-Instituto Universitario, Lisbon, Portugal
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Abstract
Research has recently shown that efficient selection relies on the implicit extraction of environmental regularities, known as statistical learning. Although this has been demonstrated for scenes, similar learning arguably also occurs for objects. To test this, we developed a paradigm that allowed us to track attentional priority at specific object locations irrespective of the object's orientation in three experiments with young adults (all Ns = 80). Experiments 1a and 1b established within-object statistical learning by demonstrating increased attentional priority at relevant object parts (e.g., hammerhead). Experiment 2 extended this finding by demonstrating that learned priority generalized to viewpoints in which learning never took place. Together, these findings demonstrate that as a function of statistical learning, the visual system not only is able to tune attention relative to specific locations in space but also can develop preferential biases for specific parts of an object independently of the viewpoint of that object.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dirk van Moorselaar
- Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.,Institute of Brain and Behaviour Amsterdam (iBBA), The Netherlands
| | - Jan Theeuwes
- Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.,Institute of Brain and Behaviour Amsterdam (iBBA), The Netherlands.,William James Center for Research, ISPA-Instituto Universitario
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Abstract
The present study used perceptual sensitivity (d′) to determine the spatial distribution of attention in displays in which participants have learned to suppress a location that is most likely to contain a distractor. Participants had to indicate whether a horizontal or a vertical line, which was shown only briefly before it was masked, was present within a target shape. Critically, the target shape could be accompanied by a singleton distractor color, which when present appeared with a high probability at one display location. The results show that perceptual sensitivity was reduced for locations likely to contain a distractor, as d′ was lower for this location than for all other locations in the display. We also found that the presence of an irrelevant color singleton reduced the gain for input at the target location, particularly when the irrelevant singleton was close to the target singleton. We conclude that, through the repeated encounter with a distractor at a particular location, the weights within the attentional priority map are changed such that the perceptual sensitivity for objects presented at that location is reduced relative to all other locations. This reduction of perceptual sensitivity signifies that this location competes less for attention than all other locations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dirk van Moorselaar
- Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.,Institute of Brain and Behaviour, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.,
| | - Jan Theeuwes
- Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.,Institute of Brain and Behaviour, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.,
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Tokushige SI, Matsuda S, Inomata-Terada S, Hamada M, Ugawa Y, Tsuji S, Terao Y. Premature saccades: A detailed physiological analysis. Clin Neurophysiol 2020; 132:63-76. [PMID: 33254099 DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2020.09.026] [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: 04/10/2020] [Revised: 08/04/2020] [Accepted: 09/07/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Premature saccades (PSs) are those made with latencies too short for the direction and amplitude to be specifically programmed. We sought to determine the minimum latency needed to establish accurate direction and amplitude, and observed what occurs when saccades are launched before this minimum latency. METHODS In Experiment 1, 249 normal subjects performed the gap saccade task with horizontal targets. In Experiment 2, 28 normal subjects performed the gap saccade task with the targets placed in eight directions. In Experiment 3, 38 normal subjects, 49 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), and 10 patients with spinocerebellar degeneration (SCD) performed the gap saccade task with horizontal targets. RESULTS In Experiment 1, it took 100 ms to accurately establish saccade amplitudes and directions. In Experiment 2, however, the latencies needed for accurate amplitude and direction establishment were both approximately 150 ms. In Experiment 3, the frequencies of PSs in patients with PD and SCD were lower than those of normal subjects. CONCLUSIONS The saccade amplitudes and directions are determined simultaneously, 100-150 ms after target presentation. PSs may result from prediction of the oncoming target direction or latent saccade activities in the superior colliculus. SIGNIFICANCE Saccade direction and amplitude are determined simultaneously.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shin-Ichi Tokushige
- Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan; Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Kyorin University, 6-20-2, Shinkawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8611, Japan
| | - Shunichi Matsuda
- Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan; Department of Neurology, NTT Medical Center Tokyo, 5-9-22, Higashigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0022, Japan
| | - Satomi Inomata-Terada
- Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan; Department of Medical Physiology, School of Medicine, Kyorin University, 6-20-2, Shinkawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8611, Japan
| | - Masashi Hamada
- Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan
| | - Yoshikazu Ugawa
- Department of NeuroRegeneration, Fukushima Medical University, 1 Hikarigaoka, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan
| | - Shoji Tsuji
- Department of Molecular Neurology, The University of Tokyo and International University of Health and Welfare, 4-3, Kozunomori, Narita-shi, Chiba-ken 286-8686, Japan
| | - Yasuo Terao
- Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan; Department of Medical Physiology, School of Medicine, Kyorin University, 6-20-2, Shinkawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8611, Japan.
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