scholarly journals Aesthetic appreciation of musical intervals enhances behavioural and neurophysiological indexes of attentional engagement and motor inhibition

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Sarasso ◽  
I. Ronga ◽  
A. Pistis ◽  
E. Forte ◽  
F. Garbarini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Response Times ◽  
Indirect Evidence ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Auditory Evoked Potential ◽  
Motor Behaviour ◽  
Motor Inhibition ◽  
Aesthetic Appreciation ◽  
Aesthetic Judgement ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Attentional Engagement

AbstractFrom Kant to current perspectives in neuroaesthetics, the experience of beauty has been described as disinterested, i.e. focusing on the stimulus perceptual features while neglecting self-referred concerns. At a neurophysiological level, some indirect evidence suggests that disinterested aesthetic appreciation might be associated with attentional enhancement and inhibition of motor behaviour. To test this hypothesis, we performed three auditory-evoked potential experiments, employing consonant and dissonant two-note musical intervals. Twenty-two volunteers judged the beauty of intervals (Aesthetic Judgement task) or responded to them as fast as possible (Detection task). In a third Go-NoGo task, a different group of twenty-two participants had to refrain from responding when hearing intervals. Individual aesthetic judgements positively correlated with response times in the Detection task, with slower motor responses for more appreciated intervals. Electrophysiological indexes of attentional engagement (N1/P2) and motor inhibition (N2/P3) were enhanced for more appreciated intervals. These findings represent the first experimental evidence confirming the disinterested interest hypothesis and may have important applications in research areas studying the effects of stimulus features on learning and motor behaviour.

Spatial Orienting Controlled without Awareness: A Semantically Based Implicit Learning Effect

1996 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 490-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony J. Lambert ◽  
Alexander L. Sumich
Keyword(s):  
Implicit Learning ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Learning Effect ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Semantic Category ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Word Target ◽  
Spatial Orienting ◽  
Predictive Relationship

Three experiments tested whether spatial attention can be influenced by a predictive relation between incidental information and the location of target events. Subjects performed a simple dot detection task; 600 msec prior to each target a word was presented briefly 5° to the left or right of fixation. There was a predictive relationship between the semantic category (living or non-living) of the words and target location. However, subjects were instructed to ignore the words, and a post-experiment questionnaire confirmed that they remained unaware of the word-target relationship. In all three experiments, given some practice on the task, response times were faster when targets appeared at likely ( p = 0.8), compared to unlikely ( p = 0.2) locations, in relation to lateral word category. Experiments 2 and 3 confirmed that this effect was driven by semantic encoding of the irrelevant words, and not by repetition of individual stimuli. Theoretical implications of this finding are discussed.

scholarly journals Performance and Metacognition in Scientific Reasoning

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavle Valerjev ◽  
Marin Dujmović
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Reasoning ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Experimental Manipulation ◽  
Relative Strength ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Large Individual ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Dominant Response ◽  
Versus Ratio ◽  
Normative Response

The aim of this study was to introduce a modified version of the covariation detection task to the meta-reasoning framework. This task has been used to assess scientific reasoning through the evaluation of fictitious experiment outcomes and hypothesis testing. The traditional covariation detection task was modified to include only the magnitude versus ratio-bias. The participants' task was to evaluate the effectiveness of an experimental manipulation in a series of fictitious experiments. Experiment 1 (N = 61) consisted of twenty covariation detection tasks. In half of the tasks, normative and heuristic responses were congruent, and for the other half they were incongruent. Experiment 2 (N = 48) had the same experimental design, however, the fictitious data was modified to increase the relative strength of the normative response. After each trial participants provided a judgment of confidence. Results confirmed that the main manipulation of congruence was successful. Participants were more accurate, faster and more confident in the congruent condition. The manipulation from Experiment 2 had a larger impact on response times than on confidence judgments and accuracy. Correct responses were faster in Experiment 2 when compared to Experiment 1, with higher confidence for correct congruent responses. Analyses by response type revealed large individual differences in the relative strength of the processes which generate normative and biased responses. Participants were faster and more confident when rationalizing in favour of their dominant response while they were slower and less confident when decoupling from that dominant response. The covariation detection task provides new valuable insight into meta-reasoning processes.

Activation of Monkey Locus Coeruleus Neurons Varies With Difficulty and Performance in a Target Detection Task

2004 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. 361-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janusz Rajkowski ◽  
Henryk Majczynski ◽  
Edwin Clayton ◽  
Gary Aston-Jones
Keyword(s):  
Locus Coeruleus ◽  
Target Detection ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
Early Response ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Correct Rejection ◽  
Small Magnitude ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Target Detection Task

We previously reported that noradrenergic neurons in the monkey locus coeruleus (LC) are activated selectively by target stimuli in a target detection task. Here, we varied the discrimination difficulty in this task and recorded impulse activity of LC neurons to analyze LC responses on error trials and in relation to behavioral response times (RTs). In easy and difficult discrimination conditions, LC neurons responded preferentially to target stimuli with phasic activation. These responses consistently preceded behavioral responses regardless of task difficulty. Latencies for LC and behavioral responses increased similarly for difficult compared with easy discrimination trials. LC response latencies were also shorter for fast RT trials compared with slow RT trials regardless of difficulty, indicating a close temporal relationship between LC and behavioral responses. This relationship was confirmed with response-locked histograms of LC activity, which yielded more temporally synchronized LC responses than stimulus-locked histograms. Population histograms of LC activity revealed that nontarget stimuli resulting in false alarm responses produced phasic LC activation (although smaller than for target-hit trials), and nontarget stimuli resulting in correct rejection responses yielded a small inhibition in LC activity. Population analyses also revealed that LC responses included an early, small excitatory component that was not previously detected. This early response was nondiscriminative because it was similar for target and nontarget stimulus trials. These results indicate that LC neurons exhibit early small magnitude responses that are closely linked to sensory stimuli. In addition, these cells show a later, larger magnitude response that is temporally linked to behavioral responses. These and other results lead us to hypothesize that LC responses are driven by decision processes and help facilitate subsequent behavioral responses.

scholarly journals Nice Guys Check Twice

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary L Howard ◽  
Paul Michael Garrett ◽  
Daniel R. Little ◽  
James T. Townsend ◽  
Ami Eidels
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Processing Capacity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Capacity Coefficient ◽  
Processing Resources ◽  
Detection Of Signals ◽  
Target Locations ◽  
And Task

Systems Factorial Technology (SFT) is a popular framework for that has been used to investigate processing capacity across many psychological domains over the past 25+ years. To date, it had been assumed that no processing resources are used for sources in which no signal has been presented (i.e., in a location that can contain a signal but does not on a given trial). Hence, response times are purely driven by the ``signal-containing'' location or locations. This assumption is critical to the underlying mathematics of the capacity coefficient measure of SFT. In this manuscript, we show that stimulus locations influence response times even when they contain no signal, and that this influence has repercussions for the interpretation of processing capacity under the SFT framework, particularly in conjunctive (AND) tasks - where positive responses require detection of signals in multiple locations. We propose a modification to the AND task requiring participants to fully identify both target locations on all trials. This modification allows a new coefficient to be derived. We apply the new coefficient to novel experimental data and resolve a previously reported empirical paradox, where observed capacity was limited in an OR detection task but super capacity in an AND detection task. Hence, previously reported differences in processing capacity between OR and AND task designs are likely to have been spurious.

Effects of Cognitive Foveal Load on a Peripheral Single-Target Detection Task

1993 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 515-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. S. Chan ◽  
Alan J. Courtney
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Target Detection ◽  
Significant Interaction ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Large Dispersion ◽  
Single Target ◽  
Four Levels ◽  
Target Detection Task

This experiment investigated the effects of foveal cognitive load on a primary peripheral single-target detection task. Four levels of foveal task with cognitive loads involving identification and summation of numerals were used. Number of correct targets detected seemed unaffected by the foveal load in the near periphery but a decrement occurred beyond 7.7°. Response times for correct responses showed large dispersion compared with that for correct locations. At a low cognitive load, foveal task performance showed no deterioration for all eccentricities tested, but at a higher cognitive load performance declined gradually across eccentricities. Mild evidence of runnel vision was obtained as indicated by the significant interaction of cognitive loads × eccentricities. Resources theory accounted well for the results.

scholarly journals Locus coeruleus neurons encode the subjective difficulty of triggering and executing actions

PLoS Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. e3001487
Author(s):  
Pauline Bornert ◽  
Sebastien Bouret
Keyword(s):  
Locus Coeruleus ◽  
Target Detection ◽  
Force Production ◽  
Indirect Evidence ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Transient Activation ◽  
Physical Challenges ◽  
Task Parameters ◽  
Target Detection Task

The brain stem noradrenergic nucleus locus coeruleus (LC) is involved in various costly processes: arousal, stress, and attention. Recent work has pointed toward an implication in physical effort, and indirect evidence suggests that the LC could be also involved in cognitive effort. To assess the dynamic relation between LC activity, effort production, and difficulty, we recorded the activity of 193 LC single units in 5 monkeys performing 2 discounting tasks (a delay discounting task and a force discounting task), as well as a simpler target detection task where conditions were matched for difficulty and only differed in terms of sensory-motor processes. First, LC neurons displayed a transient activation both when monkeys initiated an action and when exerting force. Second, the magnitude of the activation scaled with the associated difficulty, and, potentially, the corresponding amount of effort produced, both for decision and force production. Indeed, at action initiation in both discounting tasks, LC activation increased in conditions associated with lower average engagement rate, i.e., those requiring more cognitive control to trigger the response. Decision-related activation also scaled with response time (RT), over and above task parameters, in line with the idea that it reflects the amount of resources (here time) spent on the decision process. During force production, LC activation only scaled with the amount of force produced in the force discounting task, but not in the control target detection task, where subjective difficulty was equivalent across conditions. Our data show that LC neurons dynamically track the amount of effort produced to face both cognitive and physical challenges with a subsecond precision. This works provides key insight into effort processing and the contribution of the noradrenergic system, which is affected in several pathologies where effort is impaired, including Parkinson disease and depression.

scholarly journals Fostering the Aesthetic Pleasure: The Effect of Verbal Description on Aesthetic Appreciation of Ambiguous and Unambiguous Artworks

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 144
Author(s):  
Emanuela Mari ◽  
Alessandro Quaglieri ◽  
Giulia Lausi ◽  
Maddalena Boccia ◽  
Alessandra Pizzo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Total Sample ◽  
Verbal Description ◽  
Aesthetic Appreciation ◽  
Audio Description ◽  
Aesthetic Pleasure ◽  
State Of Mind ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Retest Session

Background: Aesthetic experience begins through an intentional shift from automatic visual perceptual processing to an aesthetic state of mind that is evidently directed towards sensory experience. In the present study, we investigated whether portrait descriptions affect the aesthetic pleasure of both ambiguous (i.e., Arcimboldo’s portraits) and unambiguous portraits (i.e., Renaissance portraits). Method: A total sample of 86 participants were recruited and completed both a baseline and a retest session. In the retest session, we implemented a sample audio description for each portrait. The portraits were described by three types of treatment, namely global, local, and historical descriptions. Results: During the retest session, aesthetic pleasure was higher than the baseline. Both the local and the historical treatments improved the aesthetic appreciation of ambiguous portraits; instead, the global and the historical treatment improved aesthetic appreciation of Renaissance portraits during the retest session. Additionally, we found that the response times were slower in the retest session. Conclusion: taken together, these findings suggest that aesthetic preference was affected by the description of an artwork, likely due to a better knowledge of the painting, which prompts a more accurate (and slower) reading of the artwork.

A Comparison of Auditory and Visual Representations of System Confidence to Support Trust Specificity, Attention Management, and Joint Performance in Human-Machine Teams

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-71
Author(s):  
Kevin Lieberman ◽  
Nadine Sarter
Keyword(s):  
Target Detection ◽  
Resource Competition ◽  
Visual Target ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Detection Accuracy ◽  
Joint Performance ◽  
Attention Demands ◽  
Target Detection Task

Breakdowns in human-robot teaming can result from trust miscalibration, i.e., a poor mapping of trust to a system’s capabilities, resulting in misuse or disuse of the technology. Trust miscalibration also negatively affects operators’ top-down attention allocation and monitoring of the system. This experiment assessed the efficacy of visual and auditory representations of a system’s confidence in its own abilities for supporting trust specificity, attention management and joint performance in the context of a UAV-supported target detection task. In contrast to earlier studies, neither visual nor auditory confidence information improved detection accuracy. Visual representations of confidence led to slower response times than auditory representations, likely due to resource competition with the visual target detection task. Finally, slower response times were observed when a UAV incorrectly detected a target. Results from this study can inform the design of visual and auditory representations of system confidence in human-machine teams with high attention demands.

scholarly journals Disrupted Spatial Organization of Cued Exogenous Attention Persists Into Adulthood in Developmental Dyslexia

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Pina Rodrigues ◽  
Miguel Castelo-Branco ◽  
Marieke van Asselen
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Developmental Dyslexia ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Exogenous Attention ◽  
Similar Response ◽  
Reading Impairment ◽  
Attention Orienting ◽  
The Neural Network ◽  
Attentional Engagement

Purpose: Abnormal exogenous attention orienting and diffused spatial distribution of attention have been associated with reading impairment in children with developmental dyslexia. However, studies in adults have failed to replicate such relationships. The goal of the present study was to address this issue by assessing exogenous visual attention and its peripheral spatial distribution in adults with developmental dyslexia.Methods: We measured response times, accuracy and eye movements of 18 dyslexics and 19 typical readers in a cued discrimination paradigm, in which stimuli were presented at different peripheral eccentricities.Results: Results showed that adults with developmental dyslexia were slower that controls in using their mechanisms of exogenous attention orienting. Moreover, we found that while controls became slower with the increase of eccentricity, dyslexics showed an abnormal inflection at 10° as well as similar response times at the most distant eccentricities. Finally, dyslexics show attentional facilitation deficits above 12° of eccentricity, suggesting an attentional engagement deficit at far periphery.Conclusion: Taken together, our findings indicate that, in dyslexia, the temporal deficits in orientation of attention and its abnormal peripheral spatial distribution are not restricted to childhood and persist into adulthood. Our results are, therefore, consistent with the hypothesis that the neural network underlying selective spatial attention is disrupted in dyslexia.

scholarly journals Adam Smith's ‘Sympathetic Imagination’ and the Aesthetic Appreciation of Environment

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Brady
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgement ◽  
Aesthetic Appreciation ◽  
Aesthetic Judgement ◽  
Impartial Spectator ◽  
Aesthetic Engagement ◽  
The Aesthetic

This paper explores the significance of Adam Smith's ideas for defending non-cognitivist theories of aesthetic appreciation of nature. Objections to non-cognitivism argue that the exercise of emotion and imagination in aesthetic judgement potentially sentimentalizes and trivializes nature. I argue that although directed at moral judgement, Smith's views also find a place in addressing this problem. First, sympathetic imagination may afford a deeper and more sensitive type of aesthetic engagement. Second, in taking up the position of the impartial spectator, aesthetic judgements may originate in a type of self-regulated response where we stand outside ourselves to check those overly humanizing tendencies which might lead to a failure in appreciating nature as nature.

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