Using Speed and Accuracy and the Simon Effect to Explore the Output Form of Inhibition of Return

Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to slower responses to targets presented at previously cued locations. Contrasting target discrimination performance over various eye movement conditions has shown the level of activation of the reflexive oculomotor system determines the nature of the effect. Notably, an inhibitory effect of a cue nearer to the input end of the processing continuum is observed when the reflexive oculomotor system is actively suppressed, and an inhibitory effect nearer the output end of the processing continuum is observed when the reflexive oculomotor system is actively engaged. Furthermore, these two forms of IOR interact differently with the Simon effect. Drift diffusion modeling has suggested that two parameters can theoretically account for the speed-accuracy tradeoff rendered by the output-based form of IOR: increased threshold and decreased trial noise. In Experiment 1, we demonstrate that the threshold parameter best accounts for the output-based form of IOR by measuring it with intermixed discrimination and localization targets. Experiment 2 employed the response-signal methodology and showed that the output-based form has no effect on the accrual of information about the target's identity. These results converge with the response bias account for the output form of IOR.

A Randomized Trial of Behavioral Nudges Delivered Through Text Messages to Increase Influenza Vaccination Among Patients With an Upcoming Primary Care Visit

PURPOSE

To evaluate if nudges delivered by text message prior to an upcoming primary care visit can increase influenza vaccination rates.

DESIGN

Randomized, controlled trial.

SETTING

Two health systems in the Northeastern US between September 2020 and March 2021.

SUBJECTS

74,811 adults.

INTERVENTIONS

Patients in the 19 intervention arms received 1-2 text messages in the 3 days preceding their appointment that varied in their format, interactivity, and content.

MEASURES

Influenza vaccination.

ANALYSIS

Intention-to-treat.

RESULTS

Participants had a mean (SD) age of 50.7 (16.2) years; 55.8% (41,771) were female, 70.6% (52,826) were White, and 19.0% (14,222) were Black. Among the interventions, 5 of 19 (26.3%) had a significantly greater vaccination rate than control. On average, the 19 interventions increased vaccination relative to control by 1.8 percentage points or 6.1% (P = .005). The top performing text message described the vaccine to the patient as "reserved for you" and led to a 3.1 percentage point increase (95% CI, 1.3 to 4.9; P < .001) in vaccination relative to control. Three of the top five performing messages described the vaccine as "reserved for you." None of the interventions performed worse than control.

CONCLUSIONS

Text messages encouraging vaccination and delivered prior to an upcoming appointment significantly increased influenza vaccination rates and could be a scalable approach to increase vaccination more broadly.

Eliminating the Low-Prevalence Effect in Visual Search With a Remarkably Simple Strategy

The low-prevalence effect in visual search occurs when rare targets are missed at a disproportionately high rate. This effect has enormous significance for health and public safety and has proven resistant to intervention. In three experiments (Ns = 41, 40, and 44 adults), we documented a dramatic reduction of the effect using a simple cognitive strategy requiring no training. Instead of asking participants to search for the presence or absence of a target, as is typically done in visual search tasks, we asked participants to engage in "similarity search"-to identify the display element most similar to a target on every trial, regardless of whether a target was present. When participants received normal search instructions, we observed strong low-prevalence effects. When participants used similarity search, we failed to detect the low-prevalence effect under identical visual conditions across three experiments.

Does feature-based attention play a role in the episodic retrieval of event files?

In stimulus identification tasks, stimulus and response, and location and response information, is thought to become integrated into a common event representation following a response. Evidence for this feature integration comes from paradigms requiring keypress responses to pairs of sequentially presented stimuli. In such paradigms, there is a robust cost when a target event only partially matches the preceding event representation. This is known as the partial repetition cost. Notably, however, these experiments rely on discrimination responses. Recent evidence has suggested that changing the responses to localization or detection responses eliminates partial repetition costs. If changing the response type can eliminate partial repetition costs it becomes necessary to question whether partial repetition costs reflect feature integration or some other mechanism. In the current study, we look to answer this question by using a design that as closely as possible matched typical partial repetition cost experiments in overall stimulus processing and response requirements. Unlike typical experiments where participants make a cued response to a first stimulus before making a discrimination response to a second stimulus, here we reversed that sequence such that participants made a discrimination response to the first stimulus before making a cued response to the second. In Experiment 1, this small change eliminated or substantially reduced the typically large partial repetition costs. In Experiment 2 we returned to the typical sequence and restored the large partial repetition costs. Experiment 3 confirmed these findings, which have implications for interpreting partial repetition costs and for feature integration theories in general. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Is attention really biased toward the last target location in visual search? The role of focal attention and stimulus-response translation rules

There is considerable confusion in the visual attention literature as to whether shifts of attention are biased against or in favor of previously attended regions. Studies requiring target localization have shown a performance cost when the target location randomly repeats instead of changes, whereas studies requiring arbitrary keypress responses to target identities have shown a benefit. These studies differ in the amount of attention required to the target and in the stimulus-response translation rules. To evaluate the contribution of each of these factors in accounting for the mixed results, we had participants indicate whether color singletons appeared in the left versus right visual field, or in the upper versus lower visual field, by making spatially compatible keypress responses (a between-experiment manipulation of the stimulus-response translation rules). Within each experiment, we manipulated whether a subtle discrimination of shape was necessary before localizing the target (a manipulation of focal attention). The findings revealed that the costs and benefits for repeating the target location are determined by stimulus-response translation rules, with no effect of or on attention independent of these rules. The results are accounted for by the theory of event coding, and further challenge the notion that location repetition effects reliably reflect attentional bias. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining the Role of Attention and Sensory Stimulation in the Attentional Repulsion Effect

It has been suggested that visual attention warps space, such that stimuli appearing near its locus are perceived as farther away than they actually are. This is known as the attentional repulsion effect (ARE). Recent data challenge the role of attention as the sole factor responsible for the ARE, suggesting instead that the ARE is, at least in part, a product of low level sensory interactions between a peripheral orienting cue and the Vernier target stimulus used to measure the effect. Here, we directly test whether attentional orienting, without a cue in peripheral vision to guide attention, is sufficient for generating an ARE. In Experiment 1, attention was guided to the visual periphery by a central symbolic cue that reliably indicated the locations of to-be-identified targets in peripheral vision. On a subset of trials, we probed for an ARE with Vernier targets. Reaction time (RT) data revealed that the cue guided attention but there was no trace of an ARE. In Experiment 2, we ensured that the Vernier targets were sensitive to the ARE by using the standard spatially uninformative peripheral cue to guide attention instead of the central symbolic cue. RT data again revealed that the cue guided attention, while the Vernier targets revealed an ARE. Collectively, these data suggest that attentional orienting without peripheral sensory stimulation is not sufficient for generating an ARE.

Dissociating Orienting Biases From Integration Effects With Eye Movements

Despite decades of research, the conditions under which shifts of attention to prior target locations are facilitated or inhibited remain unknown. This ambiguity is a product of the popular feature discrimination task, in which attentional bias is commonly inferred from the efficiency by which a stimulus feature is discriminated after its location has been repeated or changed. Problematically, these tasks lead to integration effects; effects of target-location repetition appear to depend entirely on whether the target feature or response also repeats, allowing for several possible inferences about orienting bias. To parcel out integration effects and orienting biases, we designed the present experiments to require localized eye movements and manual discrimination responses to serially presented targets with randomly repeating locations. Eye movements revealed consistent biases away from prior target locations. Manual discrimination responses revealed integration effects. These data collectively revealed inhibited reorienting and integration effects, which resolve the ambiguity and reconcile episodic integration and attentional orienting accounts.

Placeholders dissociate two forms of inhibition of return

Decades of research using Posner's classic spatial cueing paradigm has uncovered at least two forms of inhibition of return (IOR) in the aftermath of an exogenous, peripheral orienting cue. One prominent dissociation concerns the role of covert and overt orienting in generating IOR effects that relate to perception- and action-oriented processes, respectively. Another prominent dissociation concerns the role of covert and overt orienting in generating IOR effects that depend on object- and space-based representation, respectively. Our objective was to evaluate whether these dichotomies are functionally equivalent by manipulating placeholder object presence in the cueing paradigm. By discouraging eye movements throughout, Experiments 1A and 1B validated a perception-oriented form of IOR that depended critically on placeholders. Experiment 2A demonstrated that IOR was robust without placeholders when eye movements went to the cue and back to fixation before the manual response target. In Experiment 2B, we replicated Experiment 2A's procedures except we discouraged eye movements. IOR was observed, albeit only weakly and significantly diminished relative to when eye movements were involved. We conclude that action-oriented IOR is robust against placeholders but that the magnitude of perception-oriented IOR is critically sensitive to placeholder presence when unwanted oculomotor activity can be ruled out.

A TMS Investigation on the Role of Lateral Occipital Complex and Caudal Intraparietal Sulcus in the Perception of Object Form and Orientation

We used TMS to assess the causal roles of the lateral occipital (LO) and caudal intraparietal sulcus (cIPS) areas in the perceptual discrimination of object features. All participants underwent fMRI to localize these areas using a protocol in which they passively viewed images of objects that varied in both form and orientation. fMRI identified six significant brain regions: LO, cIPS, and the fusiform gyrus, bilaterally. In a separate experimental session, we applied TMS to LO or cIPS while the same participants performed match-to-sample form or orientation discrimination tasks. Compared with sham stimulation, TMS to either the left or right LO increased RTs for form but not orientation discrimination, supporting a critical role for LO in form processing for perception- and judgment-based tasks. In contrast, we did not observe any effects when we applied TMS to cIPS. Thus, despite the clear functional evidence of engagement for both LO and cIPS during the passive viewing of objects in the fMRI experiment, the TMS experiment revealed that cIPS is not critical for making perceptual judgments about their form or orientation.

Much ado about nothing: Capturing attention toward locations without new perceptual events

Popular frameworks of attention propose that visual orienting occurs through a combination of bottom-up (stimulus-driven) and top-down (goal-directed) processes. Much of the basic research on these processes adheres paradigmatically to experimental methods that introduce salient but task-irrelevant stimuli (objects or transients) to the visual environment to determine whether attention is captured to their locations. This common practice of changing or adding a stimulus to a location to determine whether it captures attention reflects a notion that locations at which new features or stimuli spontaneously appear are prioritized above all else. In this article, we challenge this notion with results from a modified additional singleton paradigm. In the critical condition, following a preview array of placeholder stimuli, 1 placeholder stimulus transforms into a target diamond and changes luminance at the same time that all other placeholders, except 1 (the truly "static singleton") change in luminance. This static singleton location, which involves neither a new stimulus nor any sensory transient, produces a clear pattern of attentional capture originating near its location. These findings violate multiple bottom-up and top-down perspectives while encouraging a new approach to studying attentional capture. (PsycINFO Database Record

Spatial gradients of oculomotor inhibition of return in deaf and normal adults

We explored the effect of deafness on the spatial (gradient) and temporal (decay) properties of oculomotor inhibition of return (IOR) using a task developed by Vaughan (Theoretical and applied aspects of eye movement research. Elsevier, North Holland, pp 143-150, 1984) in which participants made a sequence of saccades to carefully placed targets . Unlike IOR tasks in which ignored cues are used to explore the aftereffects of covert orienting, this task better approximates real-world behavior in which participants are free to make eye movements to potentially relevant inputs. Because IOR is a bias against returning attention and gaze to a previously attended location, we expected to find, and we did find, slower saccades toward previously fixated locations. Replicating Vaughan, a gradient of inhibition around a previously fixated location was observed and this inhibition began to decay after 1200 ms. Importantly, there were no significant differences between the deaf and the normal hearing subjects, on neither the magnitude of oculomotor IOR, nor its decay over time, nor its gradient around the previously fixated location .

In search of a reliable electrophysiological marker of oculomotor inhibition of return

Inhibition of return (IOR) operationalizes a behavioral phenomenon characterized by slower responding to cued, relative to uncued, targets. Two independent forms of IOR have been theorized: input-based IOR occurs when the oculomotor system is quiescent, while output-based IOR occurs when the oculomotor system is engaged. EEG studies forbidding eye movements have demonstrated that reductions of target-elicited P1 components are correlated with IOR magnitude, but when eye movements occur, P1 effects bear no relationship to behavior. We expand on this work by adapting the cueing paradigm and recording event-related potentials: IOR is caused by oculomotor responses to central arrows or peripheral onsets and measured by key presses to peripheral targets. Behavioral IOR is observed in both conditions, but P1 reductions are absent in the central arrow condition. By contrast, arrow and peripheral cues enhance Nd, especially over contralateral electrode sites.

On the time course of exogenous cueing effects in bilinguals: Higher proficiency in a second language is associated with more rapid endogenous disengagement

Previous investigations have demonstrated a bilingual advantage on various aspects of executive control. It remains unclear how the language proficiency of bilinguals might relate to the mechanisms involved in attentional disengagement. In the present investigation, we tested the hypothesis that high bilingual proficiency would lead to a more rapid endogenous disengagement of attention from task-irrelevant peripheral cues. We predicted that more rapid attentional disengagement would result in an earlier appearance of inhibition of return (IOR). In this study Hindi–English bilinguals who differed in their L2 (English) proficiency participated in a target detection task. Visual targets were preceded by uninformative peripheral cues at various stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) allowing for us to visualize the time course of cue-related facilitation and inhibition. High-proficient Hindi–English bilinguals showed an earlier appearance of IOR than did low-proficient bilinguals, suggesting increased efficiency in disengagement of attention from task-irrelevant inputs. Furthermore, consistent with the “global” advantage that characterizes bilinguals in many tasks, the high-proficient group outperformed low-proficient bilinguals in overall reaction time.

Visualizing the temporal dynamics of spatial information processing responsible for the Simon effect and its amplification by inhibition of return

Research has shown that the Simon effect is larger for targets suffering from inhibition of return (IOR). We used speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) methodology to explore the temporal dynamics underlying this interaction. In Experiment 1, a new method for sorting the data was used to reveal a monotonic decay in the impact of task-irrelevant location information that is responsible for the Simon effect. In Experiment 2, we show that IOR delays both task-relevant identity and task-irrelevant location codes; a relatively longer delay for location than identity codes accounts for the effect of IOR on the Simon effect. When location information was made task-relevant in Experiment 3, IOR delayed the accumulation of this information by about the same amount as when location was irrelevant. The results suggest that IOR, therefore, has a greater effect on location than identity information.