Alertness and cognitive control: Toward a spatial grouping hypothesis

Effects of alerting signals on the spatial Stroop effect: evidence for modality differences

Reaction times and error rates to a target's identity are impaired when the target is presented in a location that mismatches the response required, relative to situations where the location of the target and required response overlap (the Simon effect) and the same is true when the target's identity conveys spatial information (the spatial Stroop effect). Prior studies have found that visual versions of the spatial Stroop effect are magnified when alerting cues appear before the target and results are consistent with a dual-route framework where alerting cues boost automatic stimulus-response motor associations through the direct processing route. However, the influence of alerting signals on auditory versions of the spatial Stroop effect have not been tested and there are reasons to believe that the alerting-congruency interaction may differ across stimulus modality. In two experiments the effects of alerting cues on auditory (Experiment 1; N = 98) and visual (Experiment 2; N = 97) spatial Stroop effects are examined. Results show that alerting cues boost the spatial Stroop effect with visual stimuli but not auditory stimuli and a distributional analysis provides support for there being modality differences in the decay (or inhibition) of response-code activation. Implications for explanations of the alerting-congruence interaction are discussed.

Testing the saliency-based account of phasic alertness

As an essential component of the human attention system, the effect of phasic alertness refers to the change of performance with the presence of a preceding warning signal. Weinbach and Henik (Cognition, 133 (2), 414-419, 2014) argued that phasic alertness is an adaptive mechanism that diverts attention to salient events. This mechanism enhances selective attention when the critical event is more salient than others. When selective attention to less salient details is required, phasic alertness can lead to more interference from task-irrelevant information. The experiment on which this saliency-based account of phasic alertness is based has not been replicated. In two experiments, the present study attempted to replicate the alertness-related findings of Weinbach and Henik. Although we used a similar design, the results did not reveal evidence for an interaction between phasic alertness and response congruency in the global/local processing task. Our results do not support the saliency-based account of phasic alertness. We argue that more systematic investigation is needed for this phasic alertness account.

The Impact of Interpreting Training Experience on the Attentional Networks and Their Dynamics

Interpreting, a complicated and demanding bilingual task, depends heavily on attentional control. However, few studies have focused on the interpreters' advantages in attention, and the findings so far have been inconsistent. Meanwhile, the connection between attentional networks and other cognitive abilities, such as working memory (WM), has rarely been explored in interpreters. The present study investigated whether interpreting experience (IE) contributed to the attentional networks of bilinguals and explored the link between interpreters' attention and WM. Three groups of Chinese-English bilinguals, differing only in their duration of interpreting training (the More-IE group, the Less-IE group, and the No-IE group), completed the Attention Network Test (ANT). Results showed that only the alerting network was more efficient in the More-IE group than in the Less-IE and No-IE groups; moreover, the dynamics between the alerting and executive networks were significant only in the More-IE group. Furthermore, we found a negative correlation between the executive effect and the working memory capacity (WMC) in the More-IE group. Our study validated and provided empirical support for the Attentional Control Model, stimulating further research into neurocognitive mechanisms of advanced second language learning.

Effects of a neutral warning signal under increased temporal uncertainty

Han and Proctor (2022a, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 75[4], 754-764) reported that in a visual two-choice task, compared with a no-warning condition, a neutral warning tone caused shorter reaction times (RTs) but at the expense of an increase in error percentages (a speed-accuracy trade-off) at a constant 50-ms foreperiod but shorter RTs without an increase in error percentages at a 200-ms foreperiod. Also, the spatial compatibility of stimulus-response mappings was found to interact with the foreperiod effect on RT. We conducted three experiments to investigate whether these findings can be replicated without the constancy of foreperiod within a trial block. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants performed the same two-choice task as in Han and Proctor's study but with the foreperiod randomly varied among 50, 100, and 200 ms and RT feedback provided after each response. Results showed that as the foreperiod increased, RT decreased while EP increased, demonstrating a consistent speed-accuracy trade-off. Also, the mapping effect was found to be largest at the 100-ms foreperiod. In Experiment 3, RT feedback was not provided, and the warning tone speeded responses without evidence of an increase in error percentage. We conclude that the enhanced information processing at a 200-ms foreperiod depends on constancy of foreperiod within a trial block, whereas the mapping-foreperiod interaction found in Han and Proctor is relatively unaffected by increased temporal uncertainty.

Is the alerting-congruency interaction that is seen in experiments with stimulus-response motor associations moderated by a concurrent working-memory load?

The mechanisms underlying attention, distraction, and cognitive control have been widely studied, and results consistently show that reaction times are affected by alerting cues as well as by concurrent distraction. In addition, when distractors have pre-existing directional motor associations, alerting and distractor congruency interact in a manner where distractors have a larger effect when people are alerted to an upcoming target relative to when people are not alerted to the target's presentation. However, does a concurrent working memory load moderate this interaction in multitasking experiments, and if so, does it magnify or suppress this effect? The current study (N = 40) finds that although a memory-load significantly slows reaction times it does not moderate the alerting-congruency interaction. Discussion focuses on theoretical and applied implications of this empirical result.

Effects of a neutral warning signal on spatial two-choice reactions

Posner et al. reported that, at short fixed foreperiods, a neutral warning tone reduced reaction times (RTs) in a visual two-choice task while increasing error rates for both spatially compatible and incompatible stimulus-response mappings. Consequently, they concluded that alertness induced by the warning does not affect the efficiency of information processing but the setting of a response criterion. We conducted two experiments to determine the conditions under which the trade-off occurs. In Experiment 1, participants performed the same two-choice task as in Posner et al.'s study without RT feedback. Results showed that the warning tone speeded responses with no evidence of speed/accuracy trade-off. In Experiment 2, RT feedback was provided after each response, and a speed/accuracy trade-off was found for the 50-ms foreperiod. However, better information-processing efficiency was evident for the 200-ms foreperiod. We conclude that the foreperiod effect of a 50-ms foreperiod is a result of response criterion adjustment and that providing trial-level RT feedback is critical for replicating this pattern. However, fixed foreperiods of 200 ms or longer benefit both speed and accuracy, implying a more controlled preparation component that improves response efficiency.

A nonspatial sound modulates processing of visual distractors in a flanker task

Successful navigation of information-rich, multimodal environments involves processing of both auditory and visual information. The extent to which information within each modality is processed varies due to many factors, but the influence of auditory stimuli on the processing of visual stimuli in these multimodal environments is not well understood. Previous research has shown that a preceding sound leads to decreased reaction times in visual tasks (Bertelson, 1967). The current study examines if a non-spatial, task-irrelevant sound additionally alters processing of visual distractors that flank a central target. We utilized a version of a flanker task in which participants responded to a central letter surrounded by two irrelevant flanker letters. When these flankers are associated with a conflicting response, a congruency effect occurs such that reaction time to the target is slowed (Eriksen & Eriksen, 1974). In two experiments using this task, results showed that a preceding tone caused general speeding of reaction time across flanker types, consistent with alerting. The tone also caused decreased variation in response time. Critically, the tone modulated the congruency effect, with a greater speeding for congruent flankers than for incongruent flankers. This suggests that the influence of flanker identity was more intense after tone presentation, consistent with a nonspatial sound increasing perceptual and/or response-association processing of flanking stimuli.

Target-flanker similarity effects reflect image segmentation not perceptual grouping

When responding to the identity of a visual target, nearby stimuli (flankers) that are associated with the same response as the target cause faster and more accurate responding than flankers that are associated with different responses. Because this flanker-congruence effect (FCE) decreases with increasing target-flanker separation, it was thought to reflect limited precision of spatial selection mechanisms. Later studies, however, showed that FCEs are larger when the target and flankers are the same color compared to when they are different colors. This led to the group selection hypothesis, which states that flankers are perceptually grouped with the target and are obligatorily selected along with it, regardless of spatial separation. An alternative hypothesis, the image segmentation hypothesis, states that feature differences facilitate the segmentation of visual information into relevant and irrelevant parts, thereby mitigating the limitations of spatial precision of selection mechanisms. We test between these hypotheses using a design in which targets and flankers are grouped or not grouped, while holding feature differences in the stimulus constant. Contrary to earlier results, we found that same-colored flankers do not yield larger FCEs than different-colored flankers when feature differences are held constant. We conclude that similarity effects on the FCE reflect differential support for image segmentation, on which selection depends, rather than the obligatory selection of perceptually grouped flankers and targets.

Attention Network in Interpreters: The Role of Training and Experience

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship found between interpreting training and experience and the attentional network components: Alerting, orienting, and executive attention using the Attention Network Test (ANT). In the current study we tested three groups of interpreting students, translation students, and professional interpreters as specific forms of multilingual expertise. The student groups were tested longitudinally at the beginning and the end of their Master's programme. The professional interpreters were tested only one point in time. The results showed different attention network dynamics for the interpreting students compared to the translation students regarding alertness and executive network. First, the interpreting students showed a higher conflict effect when the alert cue was presented as well as a reduced accuracy compared to translation students. Second, the interpreting training had less effect on alerting than the translation training. Finally, two student groups showed a faster response time in conflict effect than the professional interpreters. In contrast, the professional interpreters scored a higher accuracy than two-student groups specifically in an incongruent alert condition, which confirms that they used a different responding strategy.