Facilitation and inhibition caused by the orienting of attention in propositional reasoning tasks

2007 ◽  
Vol 60 (11) ◽  
pp. 1496-1523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Cherubini ◽  
Alberto Mazzocco ◽  
Stefano Minelli
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Stimulus Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Inhibition Of Return ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Short Stimulus Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
Spatial Orienting ◽  
Short Stimulus ◽  
Reasoning Tasks ◽  
Onset Asynchrony

In an attempt to study the orienting of attention in reasoning, we developed a set of propositional reasoning tasks structurally similar to Posner's (1980) spatial cueing paradigm, widely used to study the orienting of attention in perceptual tasks. We cued the representation in working memory of a reasoning premise, observing whether inferences drawn using that premise or a different, uncued one were facilitated, hindered, or unaffected. The results of Experiments 1a, 1b, 1c, and 1d, using semantically (1a–1c) or statistically (1d) informative cues, showed a robust, long-lasting facilitation for drawing inferences from the cued rule. In Experiment 2, using uninformative cues, inferences from the cued rule were facilitated with a short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), whereas they were delayed when the SOA was longer, an effect that is similar to the “inhibition of return” (IOR) in perceptual tasks. Experiment 3 used uninformative cues, three different SOAs, and inferential rules with disjunctive antecedents, replicating the IOR-like effect with the long SOAs and, at the short SOA, finding evidence of a gradient-like behaviour of the facilitation effect. Our findings show qualitative similarities to some effects typically observed in the orienting of visual attention, although the tasks did not involve spatial orienting.

Does Self-Associating a Geometric Shape Immediately Cause Attentional Prioritization?

2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (6) ◽  
pp. 335-348
Author(s):  
Gabriela Orellana-Corrales ◽  
Christina Matschke ◽  
Ann-Katrin Wesslein
Keyword(s):  
Stimulus Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Inhibition Of Return ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Cognitive Tasks ◽  
Short Stimulus Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Probe Task ◽  
Significant Performance ◽  
Short Stimulus ◽  
Own Name ◽  
Onset Asynchrony

Abstract. In many cognitive tasks, stimuli associated with one’s self elicit faster responses than stimuli associated with others. This is true for familiar self-representations (e.g., one’s own name), for new self-associated stimuli, and for combinations of both. The current research disentangles the potential of self- versus stranger-representations for familiar, new, and paired (familiar + new) stimuli to guide attention. In Study 1 ( N = 34), responses to familiar and new self- versus other representations were tested in a dot-probe task with a short stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA; 100 ms). Study 2 ( N = 31) and Study 3 ( N = 35) use a long SOA (1,000 ms) to test whether the findings are mirrored in inhibition of return (IOR). We observe significant performance differences for targets following self- versus stranger-associated stimuli (i.e., a cuing effect or IOR depending on the SOA length), yet only when familiar representations are present. This indicates that, under conditions of attentional competition between self- and stranger-representations, familiar self-representations impact the distribution of attention while new self-representations alone do not.

The Effects of the Fixation Cue in Inhibition of Return

2013 ◽  
pp. 109-118
Author(s):  
Yujie Li ◽  
Chunlin Li ◽  
Jinglong Wu
Keyword(s):  
Stimulus Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Inhibition Of Return ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Central Fixation Point ◽  
Object A ◽  
Potential Target ◽  
Attentional Effect ◽  
Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Target Locations ◽  
Central Fixation

In experiments examining inhibition of return (IOR), an attentional effect that inhibits the returning of attention to a previously attended location or object, a second cue during the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) period is typically used. This is done to control the reorienting of attention from a peripherally cued location back to the central fixation point before the target appears. Recently, there have been numerous studies which demonstrate that fixation cues are effective in revealing IOR. Plenty of factors have been shown to influence the effects of the fixation cue in IOR, including the time onset of the fixation cue, the number of potential target locations, the attentional demands of performing the task, the modality of the fixation cue, and the condition of participants. Here, the authors review previous work that has examined the effects of the fixation cue in IOR.

Semantic and Associative Priming in Picture Naming

2000 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 741-764 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Xavier Alario ◽  
Juan Segui ◽  
Ludovic Ferrand
Keyword(s):  
Stimulus Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Interference Effect ◽  
Picture Naming ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Associated Primes ◽  
Associative Priming ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
Processing Level ◽  
Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Nest Bird

We report four picture-naming experiments in which the pictures were preceded by visually presented word primes. The primes could either be semantically related to the picture (e.g., “boat” - TRAIN: co-ordinate pairs) or associatively related (e.g., “nest” - BIRD: associated pairs). Performance under these conditions was always compared to performance under unrelated conditions (e.g., “flower” - CAT). In order to distinguish clearly the first two kinds of prime, we chose our materials so that (a) the words in the co-ordinate pairs were not verbally associated, and (b) the associate pairs were not co-ordinates. Results show that the two related conditions behaved in different ways depending on the stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) separating word and picture appearance, but not on how long the primes were presented. When presented with a brief SOA (114 ms, Experiment 1), the co-ordinate primes produced an interference effect, but the associated primes did not differ significantly from the unrelated primes. Conversely, with a longer SOA (234 ms, Experiment 2) the co-ordinate primes produced no effect, whereas a significant facilitation effect was observed for associated primes, independent of the duration of presentation of the primes. This difference is interpreted in the context of current models of speech production as an argument for the existence, at an automatic processing level, of two distinguishable kinds of meaning relatedness.

scholarly journals Endogenous orienting in the archer fish

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (29) ◽  
pp. 7577-7581 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Saban ◽  
Liora Sekely ◽  
Raymond M. Klein ◽  
Shai Gabay
Keyword(s):  
Inhibition Of Return ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Volitional Control ◽  
Reflexive Orienting ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
Endogenous Orienting ◽  
Attention Orienting ◽  
Spatial Orienting ◽  
Human Attention ◽  
Human Participants

The literature has long emphasized the neocortex’s role in volitional processes. In this work, we examined endogenous orienting in an evolutionarily older species, the archer fish, which lacks neocortex-like cells. We used Posner’s classic endogenous cuing task, in which a centrally presented, spatially informative cue is followed by a target. The fish responded to the target by shooting a stream of water at it. Interestingly, the fish demonstrated a human-like “volitional” facilitation effect: their reaction times to targets that appeared on the side indicated by the precue were faster than their reaction times to targets on the opposite side. The fish also exhibited inhibition of return, an aftermath of orienting that commonly emerges only in reflexive orienting tasks in human participants. We believe that this pattern demonstrates the acquisition of an arbitrary connection between spatial orienting and a nonspatial feature of a centrally presented stimulus in nonprimate species. In the literature on human attention, orienting in response to such contingencies has been strongly associated with volitional control. We discuss the implications of these results for the evolution of orienting, and for the study of volitional processes in all species, including humans.

scholarly journals Development of Memory Structures for Homographs Using Pathfinder Network Representations

2003 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Nievas ◽  
Fernando Justicia
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Cohort Effect ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Developmental Differences ◽  
Memory Structure ◽  
Short Stimulus Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Semantic Priming Effect ◽  
Short Stimulus ◽  
Pathfinder Network ◽  
Memory Structures

Some studies with children have shown that there is no semantic priming at short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) in lexical decision and naming tasks for homographs. The predictions of spreading activation theories might explain this missing effect. There may be differences in children's and adults' memory structures. We have explored this hypothesis. The development of memory structure representations for homographs was measured by a Pathfinder algorithm. In Experiment 1, the three dependent variables were: the number of links in the network, closeness measures (C), and distances between nodes. Results revealed developmental differences in network structure representations in adults and children. In Experiment 2, results revealed that these differences were not due to the cohort effect. In Experiment 3, the relationship between associative strength, as measured by associative norms, and distances, as measured by Pathfinder algorithm, was explored. The results of these three experiments and empirical research from semantic priming experiments show that these differences in memory structure representations could be one of the sources of the missing semantic priming effect in children.

Anchor Effects and Figural Aftereffects: A Comparative Psychophysical Investigation

1975 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 791-796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Abresch ◽  
Viktor Sarris
Keyword(s):  
Stimulus Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Contrast Effect ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Figural Aftereffect ◽  
Anchor Effect ◽  
Substantial Influence ◽  
Perceptual Contrast ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Onset Asynchrony

Perceptual contrast effect was studied from two points of view, as a special anchor effect and as a special figural aftereffect. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of stimulus onset asynchrony on contrast and assimilation effects, induced and measured by different psychophysical methods. Stimuli were circular beams of light projected on screens (Delboef type of illusion). When anchor and series stimuli were shown and the latter were judged by means of a rating scale, stimulus onset asychrony had no substantial influence on the contrast effect (Exp. I). When the constant method was applied, however, the asynchrony altered the shape of the contrast effect considerably (Exp. II).

Primed-lexical decision: The effect of varying the stimulus-onset asynchrony of prime and target

1986 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette M.B. de Groot ◽  
Arnold J.W.M. Thomassen ◽  
Patrick T.W. Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Stimulus Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Onset Asynchrony

scholarly journals A question of (perfect) timing: A preceding head turn increases the head-fake effect in basketball

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0251117
Author(s):  
Andrea Polzien ◽  
Iris Güldenpenning ◽  
Matthias Weigelt
Keyword(s):  
Stimulus Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Opposite Direction ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Basketball Player ◽  
Head Turn ◽  
Onset Asynchrony ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Head Fake

In many kinds of sports, deceptive actions are frequently used to hamper the anticipation of an opponent. The head fake in basketball is often applied to deceive an observer regarding the direction of a pass. To perform a head fake, a basketball player turns the head in one direction, but passes the ball to the opposite direction. Several studies showed that reactions to passes with head fakes are slower and more error-prone than to passes without head fakes (head-fake effect). The aim of a basketball player is to produce a head-fake effect for as large as possible in the opponent. The question if the timing of the deceptive action influences the size of the head-fake effect has not yet been examined systematically. The present study investigated if the head-fake effect depends on the temporal lag between the head turn and the passing movement. To this end, the stimulus onset asynchrony between head turn, and pass was varied between 0 and 800 ms. The results showed the largest effect when the head turn precedes the pass by 300 ms. This result can be explained better by facilitating the processing of passes without head fake than by making it more difficult to process passes with a head fake. This result is discussed regarding practical implications and conclusions about the underlying mechanism of the head–fake effect in basketball are drawn.

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