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Krasovskaya S, Kristjánsson Á, MacInnes WJ. Microsaccade rate activity during the preparation of pro- and antisaccades. Atten Percept Psychophys 2023; 85:2257-2276. [PMID: 37258896 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-023-02731-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/11/2023] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
Microsaccades belong to the category of fixational micromovements and may be crucial for image stability on the retina. Eye movement paradigms typically require fixational control, but this does not eliminate all oculomotor activity. The antisaccade task requires a planned eye movement in the direction opposite of an onset, allowing separation of planning and execution. We build on previous studies of microsaccades in the antisaccade task using a combination of fixed and mixed pro- and antisaccade blocks. We hypothesized that microsaccade rates may be reduced prior to the execution of antisaccades as compared with regular saccades (prosaccades). In two experiments, we measured microsaccades in four conditions across three trial blocks: one block each of fixed prosaccade and antisaccade trials, and a mixed block where both saccade types were randomized. We anticipated that microsaccade rates would be higher prior to antisaccades than prosaccades due to the need to preemptively suppress reflexive saccades during antisaccade generation. In Experiment 1, with monocular eye tracking, there was an interaction between the effects of saccade and block type on microsaccade rates, suggesting lower rates on antisaccade trials, but only within mixed blocks. In Experiment 2, eye tracking was binocular, revealing suppressed microsaccade rates on antisaccade trials. A cluster permutation analysis of the microsaccade rate over the course of a trial did not reveal any particular critical time for this difference in microsaccade rates. Our findings suggest that microsaccade rates reflect the degree of suppression of the oculomotor system during the antisaccade task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sofia Krasovskaya
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.
- Icelandic Vision Lab, Faculty of Psychology, University of Iceland, Nýi Garður, Sæmundargata 12, 102, Reykjavik, Iceland.
- Vision Modelling Lab, HSE University, Moscow, Russia.
| | - Árni Kristjánsson
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
- Icelandic Vision Lab, Faculty of Psychology, University of Iceland, Nýi Garður, Sæmundargata 12, 102, Reykjavik, Iceland
| | - W Joseph MacInnes
- Vision Modelling Lab, HSE University, Moscow, Russia
- Department of Computer Science, Swansea University, Swansea, UK
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Abstract
This paper describes Guided Search 6.0 (GS6), a revised model of visual search. When we encounter a scene, we can see something everywhere. However, we cannot recognize more than a few items at a time. Attention is used to select items so that their features can be "bound" into recognizable objects. Attention is "guided" so that items can be processed in an intelligent order. In GS6, this guidance comes from five sources of preattentive information: (1) top-down and (2) bottom-up feature guidance, (3) prior history (e.g., priming), (4) reward, and (5) scene syntax and semantics. These sources are combined into a spatial "priority map," a dynamic attentional landscape that evolves over the course of search. Selective attention is guided to the most active location in the priority map approximately 20 times per second. Guidance will not be uniform across the visual field. It will favor items near the point of fixation. Three types of functional visual field (FVFs) describe the nature of these foveal biases. There is a resolution FVF, an FVF governing exploratory eye movements, and an FVF governing covert deployments of attention. To be identified as targets or rejected as distractors, items must be compared to target templates held in memory. The binding and recognition of an attended object is modeled as a diffusion process taking > 150 ms/item. Since selection occurs more frequently than that, it follows that multiple items are undergoing recognition at the same time, though asynchronously, making GS6 a hybrid of serial and parallel processes. In GS6, if a target is not found, search terminates when an accumulating quitting signal reaches a threshold. Setting of that threshold is adaptive, allowing feedback about performance to shape subsequent searches. Simulation shows that the combination of asynchronous diffusion and a quitting signal can produce the basic patterns of response time and error data from a range of search experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy M Wolfe
- Ophthalmology and Radiology, Brigham & Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Visual Attention Lab, 65 Landsdowne St, 4th Floor, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
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Delta plots for conflict tasks: An activation-suppression race model. Psychon Bull Rev 2021; 28:1776-1795. [PMID: 34327678 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-021-01900-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
We describe a mathematically simple yet precise model of activation suppression that can explain the negative-going delta plots often observed in standard Simon tasks. The model postulates a race between the identification of the relevant stimulus attribute and the suppression of irrelevant location-based activation, with the irrelevant activation only having an effect if the irrelevant activation is still present at the moment when central processing of the relevant attribute starts. The model can be fitted by maximum likelihood to observed distributions of RTs in congruent and incongruent trials, and it provides good fits to two previously-reported data sets with plausible parameter values. R and MATLAB software for use with the model is provided.
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Feature Distribution Learning (FDL): A New Method for Studying Visual Ensembles Perception with Priming of Attention Shifts. SPATIAL LEARNING AND ATTENTION GUIDANCE 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/7657_2019_20] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
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Selection and response bias as determinants of priming of pop-out search: Revelations from diffusion modeling. Psychon Bull Rev 2018; 25:2389-2397. [DOI: 10.3758/s13423-018-1482-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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Jóhannesson ÓI, Edelman JA, Sigurþórsson BD, Kristjánsson Á. Effects of saccade training on express saccade proportions, saccade latencies, and peak velocities: an investigation of nasal/temporal differences. Exp Brain Res 2018; 236:1251-1262. [PMID: 29480354 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-018-5213-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2017] [Accepted: 02/20/2018] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Express saccades have very short latencies and are often considered a special population of saccadic eye movements. Recent evidence suggests that express saccade generation in humans increases with training, and that this training is independent of the actual saccade vector being trained. We assessed the time course of these training-induced increases in express saccade generation and how they differ between the nasal and temporal hemifields, and second whether they transfer from the trained to the untrained eye. We also measured the effects of training on saccade latencies more generally, and upon peak velocities. The training effect transferred between the nasal and temporal hemifields and between the trained and untrained eyes. More surprisingly, we found an asymmetric effect of training on express saccade proportions: Before training, express saccade proportions were higher for saccades made into the nasal hemifield but with training this reversed. This training-induced asymmetry was also observed in overall saccade latencies, showing how training can unmask nasal/temporal asymmetries in saccade latencies. Finally, we report for the first time that saccadic peak velocities increased with training, independently of changes in amplitude.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ómar I Jóhannesson
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Sæmundargötu 2, 101, Reykjavík, Iceland.
| | - Jay A Edelman
- Department of Biology, The City College of New York, New York, NY, USA
| | - Bjarki Dalsgaard Sigurþórsson
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Sæmundargötu 2, 101, Reykjavík, Iceland
| | - Árni Kristjánsson
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Sæmundargötu 2, 101, Reykjavík, Iceland
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7
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Abstract
The Internet provides a convenient environment for data collection in psychology. Modern Web programming languages, such as JavaScript or Flash (ActionScript), facilitate complex experiments without the necessity of experimenter presence. Yet there is always a question of how much noise is added due to the differences between the setups used by participants and whether it is compensated for by increased ecological validity and larger sample sizes. This is especially a problem for experiments that measure response times (RTs), because they are more sensitive (and hence more susceptible to noise) than, for example, choices per se. We used a simple visual search task with different set sizes to compare laboratory performance with Web performance. The results suggest that although the locations (means) of RT distributions are different, other distribution parameters are not. Furthermore, the effect of experiment setting does not depend on set size, suggesting that task difficulty is not important in the choice of a data collection method. We also collected an additional online sample to investigate the effects of hardware and software diversity on the accuracy of RT data. We found that the high diversity of browsers, operating systems, and CPU performance may have a detrimental effect, though it can partly be compensated for by increased sample sizes and trial numbers. In sum, the findings show that Web-based experiments are an acceptable source of RT data, comparable to a common keyboard-based setup in the laboratory.
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Carlisle NB, Kristjánsson Á. How visual working memory contents influence priming of visual attention. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2017; 82:833-839. [PMID: 28405777 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-017-0866-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2017] [Accepted: 04/06/2017] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Recent evidence shows that when the contents of visual working memory overlap with targets and distractors in a pop-out search task, intertrial priming is inhibited (Kristjánsson, Sævarsson & Driver, Psychon Bull Rev 20(3):514-521, 2013, Experiment 2, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review). This may reflect an interesting interaction between implicit short-term memory-thought to underlie intertrial priming-and explicit visual working memory. Evidence from a non-pop-out search task suggests that it may specifically be holding distractors in visual working memory that disrupts intertrial priming (Cunningham & Egeth, Psychol Sci 27(4):476-485, 2016, Experiment 2, Psychological Science). We examined whether the inhibition of priming depends on whether feature values in visual working memory overlap with targets or distractors in the pop-out search, and we found that the inhibition of priming resulted from holding distractors in visual working memory. These results are consistent with separate mechanisms of target and distractor effects in intertrial priming, and support the notion that the impact of implicit short-term memory and explicit visual working memory can interact when each provides conflicting attentional signals.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Árni Kristjánsson
- Department of Psychology, University of Iceland, Gimli v. Sturlugötu 101, Reykjavik, Iceland.
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The Effect of Corrective Feedback on Performance in Basic Cognitive Tasks: An Analysis of RT Components. Psychol Belg 2016; 56:370-381. [PMID: 30479446 PMCID: PMC5854175 DOI: 10.5334/pb.240] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The current work examines the effect of trial-by-trial feedback about correct and error responding on performance in two basic cognitive tasks: a classic Stroop task (n = 40) and a color-word matching task (n = 30). Standard measures of both RT and accuracy were examined in addition to measures obtained from fitting the ex-Gaussian distributional model to the correct RTs. For both tasks, RTs were faster in blocks of trials with feedback than in blocks without feedback, but this difference was not significant. On the other hand, with respect to the distributional analyses, providing feedback served to significantly reduce the size of the tails of the RT distributions. Such results suggest that, for conditions in which accuracy is fairly high, the effect of corrective feedback might either be to reduce the tendency to double-check before responding or to decrease the amount of attentional lapsing.
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Abstract
Wolfe (2016) responds to my article (Kristjánsson, 2015), arguing among other things, that the differences in slope by response method in my data reflect speed accuracy trade-offs. But when reaction times and errors are combined in one score (inverse efficiency) to sidestep speed accuracy trade-offs, slope differences still remain. The problem that slopes, which are thought to measure search speed, differ by response type therefore remains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Árni Kristjánsson
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland; Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, Reyjavik, Iceland
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Jóhannesson ÓI, Balan O, Unnthorsson R, Moldoveanu A, Kristjánsson Á. The Sound of Vision Project: On the Feasibility of an Audio-Haptic Representation of the Environment, for the Visually Impaired. Brain Sci 2016; 6:brainsci6030020. [PMID: 27355966 PMCID: PMC5039449 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci6030020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2016] [Revised: 06/18/2016] [Accepted: 06/23/2016] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The Sound of Vision project involves developing a sensory substitution device that is aimed at creating and conveying a rich auditory representation of the surrounding environment to the visually impaired. However, the feasibility of such an approach is strongly constrained by neural flexibility, possibilities of sensory substitution and adaptation to changed sensory input. We review evidence for such flexibility from various perspectives. We discuss neuroplasticity of the adult brain with an emphasis on functional changes in the visually impaired compared to sighted people. We discuss effects of adaptation on brain activity, in particular short-term and long-term effects of repeated exposure to particular stimuli. We then discuss evidence for sensory substitution such as Sound of Vision involves, while finally discussing evidence for adaptation to changes in the auditory environment. We conclude that sensory substitution enterprises such as Sound of Vision are quite feasible in light of the available evidence, which is encouraging regarding such projects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ómar I Jóhannesson
- Laboratory of Visual Perception and Visuo-motor control, Faculty of Psychology, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavik 101, Iceland.
| | - Oana Balan
- Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers, Computer Science and Engineering Department, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Bucharest 060042, Romania.
| | - Runar Unnthorsson
- Faculty of Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, School of Engineering and Natural Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavik 101, Iceland.
| | - Alin Moldoveanu
- Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers, Computer Science and Engineering Department, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Bucharest 060042, Romania.
| | - Árni Kristjánsson
- Laboratory of Visual Perception and Visuo-motor control, Faculty of Psychology, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavik 101, Iceland.
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12
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Abstract
The visual search paradigm has had an enormous impact in many fields. A theme running through this literature has been the distinction between preattentive and attentive processing, which I refer to as the two-stage assumption. Under this assumption, slopes of set-size and response time are used to determine whether attention is needed for a given task or not. Even though a lot of findings question this two-stage assumption, it still has enormous influence, determining decisions on whether papers are published or research funded. The results described here show that the two-stage assumption leads to very different conclusions about the operation of attention for identical search tasks based only on changes in response (presence/absence versus Go/No-go responses). Slopes are therefore an ambiguous measure of attentional involvement. Overall, the results suggest that the two-stage model cannot explain all findings on visual search, and they highlight how slopes of response time and set-size should only be used with caution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Árni Kristjánsson
- Department of Psychology, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Iceland
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Kristjánsson Á. Priming of Visual Search Facilitates Attention Shifts: Evidence From Object-Substitution Masking. Perception 2015; 45:255-64. [DOI: 10.1177/0301006615607121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Priming of visual search strongly affects visual function, releasing items from crowding and during free-choice primed targets are chosen over unprimed ones. Two accounts of priming have been proposed: attentional facilitation of primed features and postperceptual episodic memory retrieval that involves mapping responses to visual events. Here, well-known masking effects were used to assess the two accounts. Object-substitution masking has been considered to reflect attentional processing: It does not occur when a target is precued and is strengthened when distractors are present. Conversely, metacontrast masking has been connected to lower level processing where attention exerts little effect. If priming facilitates attention shifts, it should mitigate object-substitution masking, while lower level masking might not be similarly influenced. Observers searched for an odd-colored target among distractors. Unpredictably (on 20% of trials), object-substitution masks or metacontrast masks appeared around the target. Object-substitution masking was strongly mitigated for primed target colors, while metacontrast masking was mostly unaffected. This argues against episodic retrieval accounts of priming, placing the priming locus firmly within the realm of attentional processing. The results suggest that priming of visual search facilitates attention shifts to the target, which allows better spatiotemporal resolution that overcomes object-substitution masking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Árni Kristjánsson
- Department of Psychology, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
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Intertrial priming of pop-out search influences the shift, skew, and dispersion of response time distributions. Atten Percept Psychophys 2015; 77:1930-44. [PMID: 25896123 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-015-0898-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Priming of pop-out (PoP), or intertrial priming, is the finding that responding to a singleton target is faster when a target's defining feature (e.g., color) and nontarget features are repeated between trials than when the target and nontarget features switch between trials. Facilitated responding may reflect priming's influence on selection, that is, implicitly encoded features speed the selection of a matching target. In contrast, PoP effects may also reflect intertrial priming's influence on postselection processes, where episodic retrieval of a previous target is facilitated when its features match the current target. Lamy, Yashar, and Ruderman Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 73, 2160-2167 (2011) proposed a hybrid, dual-stage model that assumes intertrial priming influences both selection and postselection retrieval. To provide support for intertrial priming influencing more than one cognitive process, we examined priming's influence on the shift, skew, and dispersion of RT distributions in PoP tasks by fitting the exponential-Gaussian function to the RTs. Three experiments demonstrated that PoP effects at the level of mean RT were associated with changes in both the shift and skew of the underlying RT distributions. Importantly, Experiments 2 and 3 showed that manipulations intended to influence selection or postselection processes produced corresponding changes in the contributions of the distribution shift and skew to the PoP effects on mean RT. The results suggest more than one process is influenced by intertrial priming in visual search tasks, but readers should be cautious about relating specific processes to specific exponential-Gaussian parameters.
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