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Yang F, Tian J, Yuan P, Liu C, Zhang X, Yang L, Jiang Y. Unconscious and Conscious Gaze-Triggered Attentional Orienting: Distinguishing Innate and Acquired Components of Social Attention in Children and Adults with Autistic Traits and Autism Spectrum Disorders. RESEARCH (WASHINGTON, D.C.) 2024; 7:0417. [PMID: 38988610 PMCID: PMC11233194 DOI: 10.34133/research.0417] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2024] [Accepted: 06/04/2024] [Indexed: 07/12/2024]
Abstract
Typically developing (TD) individuals can readily orient attention according to others' eye-gaze direction, an ability known as social attention, which involves both innate and acquired components. To distinguish between these two components, we used a critical flicker fusion technique to render gaze cues invisible to participants, thereby largely reducing influences from consciously acquired strategies. Results revealed that both visible and invisible gaze cues could trigger attentional orienting in TD adults (aged 20 to 30 years) and children (aged 6 to 12 years). Intriguingly, only the ability to involuntarily respond to invisible gaze cues was negatively correlated with autistic traits among all TD participants. This ability was substantially impaired in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and in children with high autistic traits. No such association or reduction was observed with visible gaze cues. These findings provide compelling evidence for the functional demarcation of conscious and unconscious gaze-triggered attentional orienting that emerges early in life and develops into adulthood, shedding new light on the differentiation of the innate and acquired aspects of social attention. Moreover, they contribute to a comprehensive understanding of social endophenotypes of ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fang Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China
- Department of Psychology and College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China
| | - Junbin Tian
- Peking University Sixth Hospital, Peking University Institute of Mental Health, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Peking University Sixth Hospital), NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health (Peking University), Beijing, P.R. China
| | - Peijun Yuan
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China
- Department of Psychology and College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China
| | - Chunyan Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China
- Department of Psychology and College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China
- School of Education and Psychology, University of Jinan, Jinan, P.R. China
| | - Xinyuan Zhang
- School of New Media, Financial & Economic News, Guangdong University of Finance, Guangzhou, P.R. China
| | - Li Yang
- Peking University Sixth Hospital, Peking University Institute of Mental Health, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Peking University Sixth Hospital), NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health (Peking University), Beijing, P.R. China
| | - Yi Jiang
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China
- Department of Psychology and College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China
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2
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Parker S, Ramsey R. What can evidence accumulation modelling tell us about human social cognition? Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2024; 77:639-655. [PMID: 37154622 PMCID: PMC10880422 DOI: 10.1177/17470218231176950] [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: 11/10/2022] [Revised: 04/16/2023] [Accepted: 05/04/2023] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
Evidence accumulation models are a series of computational models that provide an account for speeded decision-making. These models have been used extensively within the cognitive psychology literature to great success, allowing inferences to be drawn about the psychological processes that underlie cognition that are sometimes not available in a traditional analysis of accuracy or reaction time (RT). Despite this, there have been only a few applications of these models within the domain of social cognition. In this article, we explore several ways in which the study of human social information processing would benefit from application of evidence accumulation modelling. We begin first with a brief overview of the evidence accumulation modelling framework and their past success within the domain of cognitive psychology. We then highlight five ways in which social cognitive research would benefit from an evidence accumulation approach. This includes (1) greater specification of assumptions, (2) unambiguous comparisons across blocked task conditions, (3) quantifying and comparing the magnitude of effects in standardised measures, (4) a novel approach for studying individual differences, and (5) improved reproducibility and accessibility. These points are illustrated using examples from the domain of social attention. Finally, we outline several methodological and practical considerations, which should help researchers use evidence accumulation models productively. Ultimately, it will be seen that evidence accumulation modelling offers a well-developed, accessible, and commonly understood framework that can reveal inferences about cognition that may otherwise be out of reach in a traditional analysis of accuracy and RT. This approach, therefore, has the potential to substantially revise our understanding of social cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samantha Parker
- School of Psychological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Richard Ramsey
- School of Psychological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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3
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Capizzi M, Chica AB, Lupiáñez J, Charras P. Attention to space and time: Independent or interactive systems? A narrative review. Psychon Bull Rev 2023; 30:2030-2048. [PMID: 37407793 PMCID: PMC10728255 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-023-02325-y] [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: 06/02/2023] [Indexed: 07/07/2023]
Abstract
While there is ample evidence for the ability to selectively attend to where in space and when in time a relevant event might occur, it remains poorly understood whether spatial and temporal attention operate independently or interactively to optimize behavior. To elucidate this important issue, we provide a narrative review of the literature investigating the relationship between the two. The studies were organized based on the attentional manipulation employed (endogenous vs. exogenous) and the type of task (detection vs. discrimination). Although the reviewed findings depict a complex scenario, three aspects appear particularly important in promoting independent or interactive effects of spatial and temporal attention: task demands, attentional manipulation, and their combination. Overall, the present review provides key insights into the relationship between spatial and temporal attention and identifies some critical gaps that need to be addressed by future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mariagrazia Capizzi
- Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
| | - Ana B Chica
- Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Juan Lupiáñez
- Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Pom Charras
- Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, EPSYLON EA 4556, F34000, Montpellier, France
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Jia H, Wang Q, Feng X, Hu Z. Face mask reduces gaze-cueing effect. Sci Rep 2023; 13:13160. [PMID: 37573401 PMCID: PMC10423210 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-40195-5] [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] [Received: 04/20/2023] [Accepted: 08/06/2023] [Indexed: 08/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent studies have found that face masks affect social cognition and behaviour in the context of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The eyes, the only part of the face not covered by face masks, are an important spatial attention cue that can trigger social attention orienting. Here, we adopted a spatial gaze-cueing task to investigate whether face masks affect social attention orienting triggered by eye gaze cues. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to determine the orientation of a target line under two types of cues-masked and non-masked faces-and two stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) conditions (300 ms and 1000 ms). The results showed that masked faces induced a smaller gaze-cueing effect (GCE) compared to non-masked faces at 300 ms SOA, while two face types induced similar GCEs at 1000 ms SOA. Experiment 2 used mouth-obscured faces and non-masked faces as cues and found that no significant difference in GCE between the two types at either 300 ms or 1000 ms SOA, indicating that the reduction of GCE caused by the masked face was due to the social meaning expressed by the mask rather than a physical effect of masking. The present study extends previous findings to support the idea that high-level social information affects the processing of eye gaze direction and provides evidence that face masks affect social cognition and behaviour in the context of COVID-19.
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Affiliation(s)
- Han Jia
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610068, People's Republic of China
| | - Qi Wang
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610068, People's Republic of China
| | - Xinghe Feng
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610068, People's Republic of China
| | - Zhonghua Hu
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610068, People's Republic of China.
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Mayrand F, Capozzi F, Ristic J. A dual mobile eye tracking study on natural eye contact during live interactions. Sci Rep 2023; 13:11385. [PMID: 37452135 PMCID: PMC10349108 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-38346-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2022] [Accepted: 07/06/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Human eyes convey a wealth of social information, with mutual looks representing one of the hallmark gaze communication behaviors. However, it remains relatively unknown if such reciprocal communication requires eye-to-eye contact or if general face-to-face looking is sufficient. To address this question, while recording looking behavior in live interacting dyads using dual mobile eye trackers, we analyzed how often participants engaged in mutual looks as a function of looking towards the top (i.e., the Eye region) and bottom half of the face (i.e., the Mouth region). We further examined how these different types of mutual looks during an interaction connected with later gaze-following behavior elicited in an individual experimental task. The results indicated that dyads engaged in mutual looks in various looking combinations (Eye-to-eye, Eye-to-mouth, and Mouth-to-Mouth) but proportionately spent little time in direct eye-to-eye gaze contact. However, the time spent in eye-to-eye contact significantly predicted the magnitude of later gaze following response elicited by the partner's gaze direction. Thus, humans engage in looking patterns toward different face parts during interactions, with direct eye-to-eye looks occurring relatively infrequently; however, social messages relayed during eye-to-eye contact appear to carry key information that propagates to affect subsequent individual social behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florence Mayrand
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1205 Dr Penfield Avenue, Montreal, QC, H3A 1B1, Canada.
| | - Francesca Capozzi
- Department of Psychology , Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Montreal, Canada
| | - Jelena Ristic
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1205 Dr Penfield Avenue, Montreal, QC, H3A 1B1, Canada.
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Burack JA, Friedman S, Lessage M, Brodeur D. Re-visiting the 'mysterious myth of attention deficit': A systematic review of the recent evidence. JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY RESEARCH : JIDR 2023; 67:271-288. [PMID: 36437709 DOI: 10.1111/jir.12994] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2021] [Accepted: 11/03/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Based on the inclusive and methodologically rigorous framework provided by Ed Zigler's developmental approach, we previously challenged what we called, 'the mysterious myth of attention deficit', the fallacy of attention as a universal deficit among persons with intellectual disability (ID). In this latest update, we conducted a systematic review of studies of essential components of attention among persons with ID published in the interim since the last iteration of the mysterious myth narrative was submitted for publication approximately a decade ago. We searched the databases PubMed and PsycINFO for English-language peer-reviewed studies published from 1 January 2011 through 5 February 2021. In keeping with the developmental approach, the two essential methodological criteria were that the groups of persons with ID were aetiologically homogeneous and that the comparisons with persons with average IQs (or with available norms) were based on an appropriate index of developmental level, or mental age. Stringent use of these criteria for inclusion served to control for bias in article selection. Articles were then categorised based on aetiological group studied and component of visual attention. Based on these criteria, 18 articles were selected for inclusion out of the 2837 that were identified. The included studies involved 547 participants: 201 participants with Down syndrome, 214 participants with Williams syndrome and 132 participants with fragile X syndrome. The findings from these articles call attention to the complexities and nuances in understanding attentional functioning across homogeneous aetiological groups and highlight that functioning must be considered in relation to aetiology; factors associated with the individual, such as developmental level, motivation, styles and biases; and factors associated with both the task, such as context, focus, social and emotional implications, and levels of environmental complexity.
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Affiliation(s)
- J A Burack
- Department of Educational & Counseling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| | - S Friedman
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - M Lessage
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - D Brodeur
- Department of Psychology, Acadia University, Wolfville, Canada
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Are you paying attention to me? The effect of social presence on spatial attention to gaze and arrows. Atten Percept Psychophys 2023; 85:41-51. [PMID: 36385672 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-022-02618-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Prior research has shown that the presence of another individual and type of attention cue (social gaze vs. nonsocial arrow) can modulate attention, with little done to integrate the two. We thus investigate the role of two social presence factors when completing a joint cueing task with either social (gaze) or nonsocial (arrow) cues. Familiarity was operationalized as participants engaged in a prompted conversation either before (n = 60 dyads) or after (n = 59 dyads) the task. To determine the effect of previous responder identity on attention, we contrasted trials where participants responded twice in a row (same responder) with switch trials (different responder), along with whether the previous target was in the same or a different location. Although familiarity only affected global speed and not magnitudes of cueing, we did find that attention to gaze and arrows was differentially affected by previous responder and previous target location. Specifically, for gaze cues muted cueing effects occurred for trials where the previous responder was different, while for arrow cues there was less muting of the cueing effect regardless of previous responder. Taken together, previous responder and previous target location both modulated attention, with the effect on attention dependent on the type of cue, gaze, or arrow.
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Villani C, D’Ascenzo S, Scerrati E, Ricciardelli P, Nicoletti R, Lugli L. Wearing the face mask affects our social attention over space. Front Psychol 2022; 13:923558. [PMID: 35992481 PMCID: PMC9386249 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.923558] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2022] [Accepted: 07/13/2022] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent studies suggest that covering the face inhibits the recognition of identity and emotional expressions. However, it might also make the eyes more salient, since they are a reliable index to orient our social and spatial attention. This study investigates (1) whether the pervasive interaction with people with face masks fostered by the COVID-19 pandemic modulates the processing of spatial information essential to shift attention according to other’s eye-gaze direction (i.e., gaze-cueing effect: GCE), and (2) whether this potential modulation interacts with motor responses (i.e., Simon effect). Participants were presented with face cues orienting their gaze to a congruent or incongruent target letter location (gaze-cueing paradigm) while wearing a surgical mask (Mask), a patch (Control), or nothing (No-Mask). The task required to discriminate the identity of the lateralized target letters by pressing one of two lateralized response keys, in a corresponding or a non-corresponding position with respect to the target. Results showed that GCE was not modulated by the presence of the Mask, but it occurred in the No-Mask condition, confirming previous studies. Crucially, the GCE interacted with Simon effect in the Mask and Control conditions, though in different ways. While in the Mask condition the GCE emerged only when target and response positions corresponded (i.e., Simon-corresponding trials), in the Control condition it emerged only when they did not correspond (i.e., Simon-non-corresponding trials). These results indicate that people with face masks induce us to jointly orient our visual attention in the direction of the seen gaze (GCE) in those conditions resembling (or associated with) a general approaching behavior (Simon-corresponding trials). This is likely promoted by the fact that we tend to perceive wearing the mask as a personal safety measure and, thus, someone wearing the face mask is perceived as a trustworthy person. In contrast, people with a patch on their face can be perceived as more threatening, therefore inducing a GCE in those conditions associated with a general avoidance behavior (Simon-non-corresponding trials).
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Affiliation(s)
- Caterina Villani
- Department of Philosophy and Communication, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- *Correspondence: Caterina Villani, ;
| | - Stefania D’Ascenzo
- Department of Philosophy and Communication, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Elisa Scerrati
- Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
| | - Paola Ricciardelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- Milan Centre for Neuroscience, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Roberto Nicoletti
- Department of Philosophy and Communication, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Luisa Lugli
- Department of Philosophy and Communication, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
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Lawrence R, Schneider LR, Pratt J. EXPRESS: Can arrows change the subjective perception of space? Exploring symbolic attention repulsion. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2022; 75:1997-2011. [PMID: 35016559 DOI: 10.1177/17470218221076135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The attention repulsion effect (ARE) refers to distortions in the perception of space for areas nearby the focus of attention. For instance, when attending to the right-hand side of the visual field, objects in central vision may appear as though they are shifted to the left. The phenomenon is likely caused by changes in visual cell functioning. To date, research on the ARE has almost exclusively used exogenous manipulations of attention. In contrast, research exploring endogenous attention repulsion has been mixed, and no research has explored the effects of non-predictive arrow cues on this phenomenon. This gap in the literature is unexpected, as symbolic attention appears to be a unique form of attentional orienting compared to endogenous and exogenous attention. Therefore, the current study explored the effects of symbolic orienting on spatial repulsion and compared it to an exogenously generated ARE. Across four experiments, both exogenous and symbolic orienting resulted in AREs; however, the magnitude of the symbolic ARE was smaller than the exogenous ARE. This difference in magnitude persisted, even after testing both phenomena using stimulus timing parameters known to produce optimal effects in traditional attentional cueing paradigms. Therefore, compared to symbolic attention, it appears that exogenous manipulations may tightly constrict attention resources on the cued location, in turn potentially influencing the functioning of visual cells for enhanced perceptual processing.
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Breil C, Huestegge L, Böckler A. From eye to arrow: Attention capture by direct gaze requires more than just the eyes. Atten Percept Psychophys 2022; 84:64-75. [PMID: 34729707 PMCID: PMC8794969 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-021-02382-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Human attention is strongly attracted by direct gaze and sudden onset motion. The sudden direct-gaze effect refers to the processing advantage for targets appearing on peripheral faces that suddenly establish eye contact. Here, we investigate the necessity of social information for attention capture by (sudden onset) ostensive cues. Six experiments involving 204 participants applied (1) naturalistic faces, (2) arrows, (3) schematic eyes, (4) naturalistic eyes, or schematic facial configurations (5) without or (6) with head turn to an attention-capture paradigm. Trials started with two stimuli oriented towards the observer and two stimuli pointing into the periphery. Simultaneous to target presentation, one direct stimulus changed to averted and one averted stimulus changed to direct, yielding a 2 × 2 factorial design with direction and motion cues being absent or present. We replicated the (sudden) direct-gaze effect for photographic faces, but found no corresponding effects in Experiments 2-6. Hence, a holistic and socially meaningful facial context seems vital for attention capture by direct gaze. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: The present study highlights the significance of context information for social attention. Our findings demonstrate that the direct-gaze effect, that is, the prioritization of direct gaze over averted gaze, critically relies on the presentation of a meaningful holistic and naturalistic facial context. This pattern of results is evidence in favor of early effects of surrounding social information on attention capture by direct gaze.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina Breil
- Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
- Department of Psychology III, University of Würzburg, Röntgenring 11, 97070, Würzburg, Germany.
| | - Lynn Huestegge
- Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Anne Böckler
- Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany
- Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
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Dalmaso M. Face Masks Do Not Alter Gaze Cueing of Attention: Evidence From the COVID-19 Pandemic. Iperception 2021; 12:20416695211058480. [PMID: 34925752 PMCID: PMC8673884 DOI: 10.1177/20416695211058480] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2021] [Accepted: 10/20/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Interacting with others wearing a face mask has become a regular worldwide practice since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the impact of face masks on cognitive mechanisms supporting social interaction is still largely unexplored. In the present work, we focused on gaze cueing of attention, a phenomenon tapping the essential ability which allows individuals to orient their attentional resources in response to eye gaze signals coming from others. Participants from both a European (i.e., Italy; Experiment 1) and an Asian (i.e., China; Experiment 2) country were involved, namely two countries in which the daily use of face masks before COVID-19 pandemic was either extremely uncommon or frequently adopted, respectively. Both samples completed a task in which a peripheral target had to be discriminated while a task irrelevant averted gaze face, wearing a mask or not, acted as a central cueing stimulus. Overall, a reliable and comparable gaze cueing emerged in both experiments, independent of the mask condition. These findings suggest that gaze cueing of attention is preserved even when the person perceived is wearing a face mask.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mario Dalmaso
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
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12
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Chow A, Quan Y, Chui C, Itier RJ, Thompson B. Orienting of covert attention by neutral and emotional gaze cues appears to be unaffected by mild to moderate amblyopia. J Vis 2021; 21:5. [PMID: 34623398 PMCID: PMC8504194 DOI: 10.1167/jov.21.11.5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Amblyopia is a developmental disorder of vision associated with higher-order visual attention deficits. We explored whether amblyopia affects the orienting of covert spatial attention by measuring the magnitude of the gaze cueing effect from emotional faces. Gaze and emotion cues are key components of social attention. Participants with normal vision (n = 30), anisometropic (n = 7) or strabismic/mixed (n = 5) amblyopia performed a cued peripheral target detection task under monocular and binocular viewing conditions. The cue consisted of a centrally presented face with left or right gaze (50% validity to target location) and a fearful, happy, or neutral expression. The magnitude of spatial cueing was computed as the reaction time difference between congruent and incongruent trials for each expression. Fearful facial expressions oriented spatial attention significantly more than happy or neutral expressions. The magnitude of the gaze cueing effect in our cohort of mild-to-moderate amblyopia was comparable to that in normal vision and was not correlated with the severity of amblyopia. There were no statistical group or amblyopia subtype differences for reaction time in any viewing condition. These results place constraints on the range of attentional mechanisms affected by amblyopia and possibly suggest normal covert processing of emotional face stimuli in mild and moderate amblyopia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy Chow
- Department of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
| | - Yiwei Quan
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
| | - Celine Chui
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
| | - Roxane J Itier
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
| | - Benjamin Thompson
- Department of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
- Centre for Eye and Vision Research, 17W Science Park, Hong Kong
- Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
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Heath DS, Jhinjar N, Hayward DA. Altered social cognition in a community sample of women with disordered eating behaviours: a multi-method approach. Sci Rep 2021; 11:14683. [PMID: 34282195 PMCID: PMC8289917 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-94117-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2021] [Accepted: 06/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Prior work suggests that individuals with an eating disorder demonstrate task-based and overall differences in sociocognitive functioning. However, the majority of studies assessed specifically anorexia nervosa and often employed a single experimental paradigm, providing a piecemeal understanding of the applicability of various lab tasks in denoting meaningful differences across diverse individuals. The current study was designed to address these outstanding issues. Participants were undergraduate females who self-identified as having an official (n = 18) eating disorder diagnosis or disordered eating behaviours with no diagnosis (n = 18), along with a control group (n = 32). Participants completed three social tasks of increasing complexity with different outcome measures, namely a gaze cueing task, passive video-watching using eyetracking, and a task to measure preferred social distance. Results diverged as a function of group across tasks; only the control group produced typical social attention effects, the disordered eating group looked significantly more at faces, and the eating disorder group demonstrated a significantly larger preferred social distance. These results suggest variations in task efficacy and demonstrate that altered sociocognitive functioning extends beyond official eating disorder diagnosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Devon S Heath
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.,Women & Children's Health Research Institute, University of Alberta, 5-083 Edmonton Clinic Health Academy (ECHA), 11405 87 Avenue NW, Edmonton, AB, T6G 1C9, Canada
| | - Nimrit Jhinjar
- Department of Psychology, P-217 Biological Sciences Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2R3, Canada
| | - Dana A Hayward
- Department of Psychology, P-217 Biological Sciences Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2R3, Canada. .,Women & Children's Health Research Institute, University of Alberta, 5-083 Edmonton Clinic Health Academy (ECHA), 11405 87 Avenue NW, Edmonton, AB, T6G 1C9, Canada. .,Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, University of Alberta, 2-132 Li Ka Shing, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E1, Canada.
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15
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Pereira EJ, Birmingham E, Ristic J. Contextually-Based Social Attention Diverges across Covert and Overt Measures. Vision (Basel) 2019; 3:E29. [PMID: 31735830 PMCID: PMC6802786 DOI: 10.3390/vision3020029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2019] [Revised: 05/27/2019] [Accepted: 05/30/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans spontaneously attend to social cues like faces and eyes. However, recent data show that this behavior is significantly weakened when visual content, such as luminance and configuration of internal features, as well as visual context, such as background and facial expression, are controlled. Here, we investigated attentional biasing elicited in response to information presented within appropriate background contexts. Using a dot-probe task, participants were presented with a face-house cue pair, with a person sitting in a room and a house positioned within a picture hanging on a wall. A response target occurred at the previous location of the eyes, mouth, top of the house, or bottom of the house. Experiment 1 measured covert attention by assessing manual responses while participants maintained central fixation. Experiment 2 measured overt attention by assessing eye movements using an eye tracker. The data from both experiments indicated no evidence of spontaneous attentional biasing towards faces or facial features in manual responses; however, an infrequent, though reliable, overt bias towards the eyes of faces emerged. Together, these findings suggest that contextually-based social information does not determine spontaneous social attentional biasing in manual measures, although it may act to facilitate oculomotor behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Effie J. Pereira
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1205 Dr. Penfield Avenue, Montreal, QC H3A 1B1, Canada
| | - Elina Birmingham
- Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada
| | - Jelena Ristic
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1205 Dr. Penfield Avenue, Montreal, QC H3A 1B1, Canada
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16
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Lanthier SN, Jarick M, Zhu MJH, Byun CSJ, Kingstone A. Socially Communicative Eye Contact and Gender Affect Memory. Front Psychol 2019; 10:1128. [PMID: 31231266 PMCID: PMC6558403 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2018] [Accepted: 04/29/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Because of their value as a socially communicative cue, researchers have strived to understand how the gaze of other people influences a variety of cognitive processes. Recent work in social attention suggests that the use of images of people in laboratory studies, as a substitute for real people, may not effectively test socially communicative aspects of eye gaze. As attention affects many other cognitive processes, it is likely that social attention between real individuals could also affect other cognitive processes, such as memory. However, from previous work alone, it is unclear whether, and if so how, socially communicative eye gaze affects memory. The present studies test the assumption that socially communicative aspects of eye gaze may impact memory by manipulating the eye gaze of a live speaker in the context of a traditional recognition paradigm used frequently in the laboratory. A female (Experiment 1) or male (Experiment 2) investigator read words aloud and varied whether eye contact was, or was not, made with a participant. With both female and male investigators, eye contact improved word recognition only for female participants and hindered word recognition in male participants. When a female investigator prolonged their eye contact (Experiment 3) to provide a longer opportunity to both observe and process the investigator's eye gaze, the results replicated the findings from Experiments 1 and 2. The findings from Experiments 1-3 suggest that females interpret and use the investigator's eye gaze differently than males. When key aspects from the previous experiments were replicated in a noncommunicative situation (i.e., when a video of a speaker is used instead of a live speaker; Experiment 4), the memory effects observed previously in response to eye gaze were eliminated. Together, these studies suggest that it is the socially communicative aspects of eye gaze from a real person that influence memory. The findings reveal the importance of using social cues that are communicative in nature (e.g., real people) when studying the relationship between social attention and memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophie N. Lanthier
- Brain, Attention, and Reality Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Michelle Jarick
- Atypical Perception Laboratory, Department of Psychology, MacEwan University, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Mona J. H. Zhu
- Cognition and Natural Behaviour Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
| | - Crystal S. J. Byun
- Brain, Attention, and Reality Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Alan Kingstone
- Brain, Attention, and Reality Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
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17
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Blair CD, Ristic J. Attention Combines Similarly in Covert and Overt Conditions. Vision (Basel) 2019; 3:E16. [PMID: 31735817 PMCID: PMC6802776 DOI: 10.3390/vision3020016] [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: 02/04/2019] [Revised: 04/16/2019] [Accepted: 04/23/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Attention is classically classified according to mode of engagement into voluntary and reflexive, and type of operation into covert and overt. The first distinguishes whether attention is elicited intentionally or by unexpected events; the second, whether attention is directed with or without eye movements. Recently, this taxonomy has been expanded to include automated orienting engaged by overlearned symbols and combined attention engaged by a combination of several modes of function. However, so far, combined effects were demonstrated in covert conditions only, and, thus, here we examined if attentional modes combined in overt responses as well. To do so, we elicited automated, voluntary, and combined orienting in covert, i.e., when participants responded manually and maintained central fixation, and overt cases, i.e., when they responded by looking. The data indicated typical effects for automated and voluntary conditions in both covert and overt data, with the magnitudes of the combined effect larger than the magnitude of each mode alone as well as their additive sum. No differences in the combined effects emerged across covert and overt conditions. As such, these results show that attentional systems combine similarly in covert and overt responses and highlight attention's dynamic flexibility in facilitating human behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jelena Ristic
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1B1, Canada
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18
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Gaze following in multiagent contexts: Evidence for a quorum-like principle. Psychon Bull Rev 2018; 25:2260-2266. [DOI: 10.3758/s13423-018-1464-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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19
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Fan L, Yu H, Zhang X, Feng Q, Sun M, Xu M. Conflict Tasks of Different Types Divergently Affect the Attentional Processing of Gaze and Arrow. Iperception 2018; 9:2041669518771713. [PMID: 29770186 PMCID: PMC5946621 DOI: 10.1177/2041669518771713] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2017] [Accepted: 03/26/2018] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The present study explored the attentional processing mechanisms of gaze and arrow cues in two different types of conflict tasks. In Experiment 1, participants performed a flanker task in which gaze and arrow cues were presented as central targets or bilateral distractors. The congruency between the direction of the target and the distractors was manipulated. Results showed that arrow distractors greatly interfered with the attentional processing of gaze, while the processing of arrow direction was immune to conflict from gaze distractors. Using a spatial compatibility task, Experiment 2 explored the conflict effects exerted on gaze and arrow processing by their relative spatial locations. When the direction of the arrow was in conflict with its spatial layout on screen, response times were slowed; however, the encoding of gaze was unaffected by spatial location. In general, processing to an arrow cue is less influenced by bilateral gaze cues but is affected by irrelevant spatial information, while processing to a gaze cue is greatly disturbed by bilateral arrows but is unaffected by irrelevant spatial information. Different effects on gaze and arrow cues by different types of conflicts may reflect two relatively distinct specific modes of the attentional process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lingxia Fan
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Huan Yu
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Xuemin Zhang
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China; State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China; Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Qing Feng
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Mengdan Sun
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Mengsi Xu
- School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
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20
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Schoeberl T, Ansorge U. The impact of temporal contingencies between cue and target onset on spatial attentional capture by subliminal onset cues. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2018; 83:1416-1425. [PMID: 29766295 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-018-1001-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2017] [Accepted: 03/30/2018] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Prior research suggested that attentional capture by subliminal abrupt onset cues is stimulus driven. In these studies, reacting was faster when a searched-for target appeared at the location of a preceding abrupt onset cue compared to when the same target appeared at a location away from the cue (cueing effect), although the earlier onset of the cue was subliminal, because it appeared as one out of three horizontally aligned placeholders with a lead time that was too short to be noticed by the participants. Because the cueing effects seemed to be independent of top-down search settings for target features, the effect was attributed to stimulus-driven attentional capture. However, prior studies did not investigate if participants experienced the cues as useful temporal warning signals and, therefore, attended to the cues in a top-down way. Here, we tested to which extent search settings based on temporal contingencies between cue and target onset could be responsible for spatial cueing effects. Cueing effects were replicated, and we showed that removing temporal contingencies between cue and target onset did not diminish the cueing effects (Experiments 1 and 2). Neither presenting the cues in the majority of trials after target onset (Experiment 1) nor presenting cue and target unrelated to one another (Experiment 2) led to a significant reduction of the spatial cueing effects. Results thus support the hypothesis that the subliminal cues captured attention in a stimulus-driven way.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tobias Schoeberl
- Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010, Vienna, Austria.
| | - Ulrich Ansorge
- Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010, Vienna, Austria
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21
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Hayward DA, Ristic J. Changes in Tonic Alertness but Not Voluntary Temporal Preparation Modulate the Attention Elicited by Task-Relevant Gaze and Arrow Cues. Vision (Basel) 2018; 2:E18. [PMID: 31735882 PMCID: PMC6835978 DOI: 10.3390/vision2020018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2018] [Revised: 04/01/2018] [Accepted: 04/05/2018] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Attention is engaged differently depending on the type and utility of an attentional cue. Some cues like visual transients or social gaze engage attention effortlessly. Others like symbols or geometric shapes require task-relevant deliberate processing. In the laboratory, these effects are often measured using a cuing procedure, which typically manipulates cue type and its utility for the task. Recent research however has uncovered that in addition to spatial orienting, this popular paradigm also engages two additional processes-tonic alertness and voluntary temporal preparation-both of which have been found to modulate spatial orienting elicited by task-irrelevant cues but not task-relevant symbols. Here we assessed whether changes in tonic alertness and voluntary temporal preparation also modulated attentional orienting elicited by task-relevant social gaze and nonsocial arrow cues. Our results indicated that while the effects of spatial attention were reliable in all conditions and did not vary with cue type, the magnitude of orienting was larger under high tonic alertness. Thus, while the cue's task utility appears to have the power to robustly drive attentional orienting, changes in tonic alertness may modulate the magnitude of such deliberate shifts of attention elicited by task-relevant central social and nonsocial cues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dana A. Hayward
- Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R3, Canada
| | - Jelena Ristic
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1B1, Canada
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22
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Face stimulus eliminates antisaccade-cost: gaze following is a different kind of arrow. Exp Brain Res 2018; 236:1041-1052. [DOI: 10.1007/s00221-018-5198-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2017] [Accepted: 02/05/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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23
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Perceiving crowd attention: Gaze following in human crowds with conflicting cues. Atten Percept Psychophys 2017; 79:1039-1049. [PMID: 28271372 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-017-1303-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
People automatically redirect their visual attention by following others' gaze orientation, a phenomenon called "gaze following." This is an evolutionarily generated socio-cognitive process that provides people with information about their environments. Often, however, people in crowds can have rather different gaze orientations. This study investigated how gaze following occurs in situations with many conflicting gazes. In two experiments, we modified the gaze cueing paradigm to use a crowd rather than a single individual. Specifically, participants were presented with a group of human avatars with differing gaze orientations, and the target appeared randomly on the left or right side of a display. We found that (a) when a marked difference existed in the number of avatars with divergent gaze orientations, participants automatically followed the majority's gaze orientation, and (b) the strongest gaze cue effect occurred when all gazes shared the same orientation, with the response superiority of the majority's oriented location monotonically diminishing with the number of gazes with divergent orientations. These findings suggested that the majority rule plays a role in gaze following behavior when individuals are confronted with conflicting multigaze scenes, and that an increasing subgroup size appears to enlarge the strength of the gaze cueing effect.
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Where Is Your Attention? Assessing Individual Instances of Covert Attentional Orienting in Response to Gaze and Arrow Cues. Vision (Basel) 2017; 1:vision1030019. [PMID: 31740644 PMCID: PMC6836279 DOI: 10.3390/vision1030019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2017] [Revised: 06/21/2017] [Accepted: 07/03/2017] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans spontaneously follow where others are looking. However, recent investigations suggest such gaze-following behavior during natural interactions occurs relatively infrequently, only in about a third of available instances. Here we investigated if a similar frequency of orienting is also found in laboratory tasks that measure covert attentional orienting using manual responses. To do so, in two experiments, we analyzed responses from a classic gaze cuing task, with arrow cues serving as control stimuli. We reasoned that the proportions of attentional benefits and costs, defined as responses falling outside of 1 standard deviation of the average performance for the neutral condition, would provide a good approximation of individual instances of attentional shifts. We found that although benefits and costs occurred in less than half of trials, benefits emerged on a greater proportion of validly cued relative to invalidly cued trials. This pattern of data held across two different measures of neutral performance, as assessed by Experiments 1 and 2, as well as across the two cue types. These results suggest that similarly to gaze-following in naturalistic settings, covert orienting within the cuing task also appears to occur relatively infrequently.
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25
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Laidlaw KEW, Kingstone A. If not When, then Where? Ignoring Temporal Information Eliminates Reflexive but not Volitional Spatial Orienting. Vision (Basel) 2017; 1:vision1020012. [PMID: 31740639 PMCID: PMC6835495 DOI: 10.3390/vision1020012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2017] [Revised: 04/25/2017] [Accepted: 05/03/2017] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
A tremendous amount of research has been devoted to understanding how attention can be committed to space or time. Until recently, relatively little research has examined how attention to these two domains combine. The present study addressed this issue. We examined how implicitly manipulating whether participants used a cue to orient attention in time impacts reflexive or volitional shifts in spatial attention. Specifically, participants made speeded manual responses to the detection of a peripherally presented target that appeared either 100, 500, or 1000 ms after the onset of a central cue. Cues were either spatially non-predictive arrows (p = 0.50) or spatially-predictive (p = 0.80) letter cues. Whereas arrow cues can reflexively orient spatial attention even when non-predictive of a target’s spatial location, letters only orient spatial attention when they reliably predict a target location, i.e., the shift is volitional. Further, in one task, a target was presented on every trial, thereby encouraging participants to use the temporal information conveyed by the cue to prepare for the appearance of the target. In another task, 25% of trials contained no target, implicitly discouraging participants from using the cue to direct attention in time. Results indicate that when temporal information is reliable and therefore volitionally processed, then spatial cuing effects emerge regardless of whether attention is oriented reflexively or volitionally. However, when temporal information is unreliable, spatial cuing effects only emerge when spatial cue information is reliable, i.e., when spatial attention is volitionally shifted. Reflexive cues do not elicit spatial orienting when their temporal utility is reduced. These results converge on the notion that reflexive shifts of spatial attention are sensitive to implicit changes in a non-spatial domain, whereas explicit volitional shifts in spatial attention are not.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaitlin E. W. Laidlaw
- Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada
- Correspondence:
| | - Alan Kingstone
- Psychology Department, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
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Hayward DA, Ristic J. Automated symbolic orienting is not modulated by explicit temporal attention. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2016; 171:93-98. [PMID: 27743523 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2016.10.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2016] [Revised: 09/29/2016] [Accepted: 10/06/2016] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent studies show that spatial attention is uniquely engaged by the selection history of a stimulus. One example of this process is Automated Symbolic Orienting, which is thought to reflect overlearned spatial links between a behaviorally relevant stimulus and a target event. However, since automated symbolic effects have been found to vary with temporal expectancies about when a target might occur, it is possible that this spatial effect may also depend on processing resources associated with voluntary temporal attention. To test this idea, here we elicited automated symbolic orienting and voluntary temporal attention in isolation and in combination. Across all conditions, both types of orienting remained typical without interacting. Thus, typical automated symbolic orienting is not modulated by participants' explicit utilization of temporal information; however, and as we have shown previously, typical ASO does appear to require the presence of an implicit temporal structure within a task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dana A Hayward
- Department of Psychology, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke Ave West, Montreal, QC, H4B 1R6, Canada.
| | - Jelena Ristic
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1205 Dr. Penfield Ave, Montreal, QC, H3A 1B1, Canada.
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