Electrophysiological Evidence for Both Perceptual and Postperceptual Selection during the Attentional Blink

When two masked targets are presented in rapid succession, correct identification of the first target (T1) leads to a dramatic impairment in identification of the second target (T2). Several studies of this so-called attentional blink (AB) phenomenon have provided behavioral and physiological evidence that T2 is processed to the semantic level, despite the profound impairment in T2 report. These findings have been interpreted as an example of perception without awareness and have been explained by models that assume that T2 is processed extensively even though it does not gain access into consciousness. The present study reports two experiments that test this assumption. In Experiment 1, the perceptual load of the T1 task was manipulated and T2 was a word that was either related or unrelated to a context word presented at the beginning of each trial. The event-related potential (ERP) technique was used to isolate the context-sensitive N400 component evoked by the T2 word. The ERP data revealed that there was a complete suppression of the N400 during the AB when the perceptual load was high, but not when perceptual load was low. Experiment 2 replicated the high-load condition of Experiment 1 while ruling out two alternative explanations for the reduction of the N400 during the AB. The results of both experiments demonstrate that word meanings are not always accessed during the AB and are consistent with studies that suggest that attention can act to select information at multiple stages of processing depending on concurrent task demands.

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Attention to local form information can prevent access to semantic information

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A ◽

10.1080/02724980143000370 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 55 (2) ◽

pp. 609-625 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Janice E. Murray ◽

Craig Jones

Keyword(s):

Line Segment ◽

Semantic Processing ◽

Semantic Information ◽

Perceptual Load ◽

Load Condition ◽

High Load ◽

Semantic Relations ◽

Local Form ◽

Semantic Level ◽

Form Information

Humphreys and Boucart (1997) have shown that when processing of local form is required for response, surrounding global information is automatically processed to a semantic level. The generality of this effect was investigated in two experiments in which the perceptual load of the relevant local form information was manipulated, as was uncertainty about perceptual load. Participants attended to a single line segment inside a picture of an animal or a vehicle and then decided which of two pictures in the target/distractor display that followed contained a line segment that matched the first in orientation. The perceptual load of the relevant local form information was either low (the matching line segment was one of the solitary line segments presented in the centre of the target and distractor pictures), or high (the matching line segment was part of one of the solitary letters presented in the centre of the target and distractor pictures). The semantic relations among the pictures were manipulated, and when perceptual load remained constant across trials, semantic relations affected performance in the low-load but not in the high-load condition. When perceptual load varied from trial to trial, there was no evidence of any semantic processing on either low- or high-load trials. The results suggest that in form-matching tasks, attentional priority can be given to local information, thus preventing access to semantic information derived from global shape. They further suggest that the distribution of attention is not dictated entirely by the actual perceptual demands of the relevant stimulus, indicating an important role for top-down processing.

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To Predict or Not to Predict: Influences of Task and Strategy on the Processing of Semantic Relations

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2007.19.8.1259 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 19 (8) ◽

pp. 1259-1274 ◽

Cited By ~ 89

Author(s):

Dietmar Roehm ◽

Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky ◽

Frank Rösler ◽

Matthias Schlesewsky

Keyword(s):

Semantic Relatedness ◽

Presentation Mode ◽

Judgment Task ◽

Sentence Context ◽

Task Demands ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Semantic Relations ◽

Decision Task ◽

Lexical Semantic ◽

Experimental Environment

We report a series of event-related potential experiments designed to dissociate the functionally distinct processes involved in the comprehension of highly restricted lexical-semantic relations (antonyms). We sought to differentiate between influences of semantic relatedness (which are independent of the experimental setting) and processes related to predictability (which differ as a function of the experimental environment). To this end, we conducted three ERP studies contrasting the processing of antonym relations (black-white) with that of related (black-yellow) and unrelated (black-nice) word pairs. Whereas the lexical-semantic manipulation was kept constant across experiments, the experimental environment and the task demands varied: Experiment 1 presented the word pairs in a sentence context of the form The opposite of X is Y and used a sensicality judgment. Experiment 2 used a word pair presentation mode and a lexical decision task. Experiment 3 also examined word pairs, but with an antonymy judgment task. All three experiments revealed a graded N400 response (unrelated > related > antonyms), thus supporting the assumption that semantic associations are processed automatically. In addition, the experiments revealed that, in highly constrained task environments, the N400 gradation occurs simultaneously with a P300 effect for the antonym condition, thus leading to the superficial impression of an extremely “reduced” N400 for antonym pairs. Comparisons across experiments and participant groups revealed that the P300 effect is not only a function of stimulus constraints (i.e., sentence context) and experimental task, but that it is also crucially influenced by individual processing strategies used to achieve successful task performance.

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Visual Word Recognition in Multilinguals

The Oxford Handbook of Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198786825.013.6 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 117-143

Author(s):

Ton Dijkstra ◽

Walter J. B. van Heuven

Keyword(s):

Pattern Recognition ◽

Reaction Time ◽

Word Recognition ◽

Eye Tracking ◽

Sentence Context ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Word Retrieval ◽

Context Sensitive ◽

Temporal Properties ◽

Interlingual Homographs

This chapter on the reading of words by multilinguals considers how retrieving words in two or more languages is affected by the lexical properties of the words, the sentence context in which they occur, and the language to which they belong. Reaction time and event-related potential (ERP) studies are discussed that investigate the processing of cognates, interlingual homographs, and words with different numbers of neighbors, both in isolation and in sentence context. After reviewing different models for multilingual word retrieval, it is concluded that multilingual word recognition involves a language-independent, context-sensitive, and interactive pattern recognition routine, with temporal properties that can be determined not only by “classical” reaction time techniques, but even better by up-to-date research techniques such as eye-tracking and ERP recordings.

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Inter-trial switches in perceptual load modulate semantic processing during the attentional blink

Journal of Vision ◽

10.1167/8.6.10 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 8 (6) ◽

pp. 10-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

J. Sy ◽

B. Giesbrecht

Keyword(s):

Attentional Blink ◽

Semantic Processing ◽

Perceptual Load

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Perceptual load modulates the processing of distractors presented at task-irrelevant locations during the attentional blink

Attention Perception & Psychophysics ◽

10.3758/bf03196687 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 72 (8) ◽

pp. 2106-2114 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

James C. Elliott ◽

Barry Giesbrecht

Keyword(s):

Attentional Blink ◽

Perceptual Load ◽

Task Irrelevant

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Perceptual load interacts with involuntary attention at early processing stages: Event-related potential studies

NeuroImage ◽

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.06.028 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 48 (1) ◽

pp. 191-199 ◽

Cited By ~ 42

Author(s):

Shimin Fu ◽

Yuxia Huang ◽

Yuejia Luo ◽

Yan Wang ◽

John Fedota ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Perceptual Load ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Involuntary Attention ◽

Early Processing

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Semantics for a Module

10.1093/oso/9780190464783.003.0006 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Roberto G. de Almeida ◽

Ernie Lepore

Keyword(s):

Empirical Data ◽

Background Knowledge ◽

Semantic Representations ◽

Subsequent Work ◽

Semantic Level ◽

Context Sensitive ◽

Propositional Representation ◽

Language Input

Fodor’s The Modularity of Mind (1983) and subsequent work propose a principled distinction between perceptual computations and background knowledge. The chapter argues that language input analyzers produce a minimally—and highly constrained—context-sensitive propositional representation of the sentence, built up from sentence constituents. Compatible with the original Modularity story, it thus takes the output of sentence perception to be a “shallow” representation—though a semantic one. The empirical data discussed bear on alleged cases of sentence indeterminacy and how such cases might be assigned (shallow) semantic representations, interact with context in highly regulated ways, and whether and how they can be enriched. The chapter proposes a semantic level of representation that serves as output of the module and as input to other systems of interpretation, arguing for a form of modularity or encapsulation that is minimally context-sensitive provided that the information from context is itself determined by linguistic principles.

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Conscious perception and the modulatory role of dopamine: no effect of the dopamine D2 agonist cabergoline on visual masking, the attentional blink, and probabilistic discrimination

Psychopharmacology ◽

10.1007/s00213-020-05579-9 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 237 (9) ◽

pp. 2855-2872

Author(s):

E.A Boonstra ◽

M.R van Schouwenburg ◽

A.K Seth ◽

M Bauer ◽

J.B Zantvoord ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Attentional Blink ◽

Visual Masking ◽

Pharmacological Study ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Striatal Dopamine ◽

Conscious Perception ◽

Double Blind ◽

Dopamine D2 ◽

D2 Agonist ◽

Dopamine D2 Agonist

Abstract Rationale Conscious perception is thought to depend on global amplification of sensory input. In recent years, striatal dopamine has been proposed to be involved in gating information and conscious access, due to its modulatory influence on thalamocortical connectivity. Objectives Since much of the evidence that implicates striatal dopamine is correlational, we conducted a double-blind crossover pharmacological study in which we administered cabergoline—a dopamine D2 agonist—and placebo to 30 healthy participants. Under both conditions, we subjected participants to several well-established experimental conscious-perception paradigms, such as backward masking and the attentional blink task. Results We found no evidence in support of an effect of cabergoline on conscious perception: key behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) findings associated with each of these tasks were unaffected by cabergoline. Conclusions Our results cast doubt on a causal role for dopamine in visual perception. It remains an open possibility that dopamine has causal effects in other tasks, perhaps where perceptual uncertainty is more prominent.

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