Have a look - the role of covert attention shifts for object integration: Evidence from pupillometry.

To investigate the processing of emotional words by covert attention, threat-related, positive, and neutral word primes were presented parafoveally (2.2° away from fixation) for 150 ms, under gaze-contingent foveal masking, to prevent eye fixations. The primes were followed by a probe word in a lexical-decision task. In Experiment 1, results showed a parafoveal threat–anxiety superiority: Parafoveal prime threat words facilitated responses to probe threat words for high-anxiety individuals, in comparison with neutral and positive words, and relative to low-anxiety individuals. This reveals an advantage in threat processing by covert attention, without differences in overt attention. However, anxiety was also associated with greater familiarity with threat words, and the parafoveal priming effects were significantly reduced when familiarity was covaried out. To further examine the role of word knowledge, in Experiment 2, vocabulary and word familiarity were equated for low- and high-anxiety groups. In these conditions, the parafoveal threat–anxiety advantage disappeared. This suggests that the enhanced covert-attention effect depends on familiarity with words.

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Overt and covert attention shifts to emotional faces – combining EEG, Eye-tracking and a Go/No-go paradigm

10.31234/osf.io/uz7gj ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Louisa Kulke ◽

Lena Brümmer ◽

Arezoo Pooresmaeili ◽

Annekathrin Schacht

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Eye Tracking ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Emotional Content ◽

Neural Mechanisms ◽

Covert Attention ◽

Emotional Expressions ◽

Brain Potentials ◽

Emotional Faces ◽

Attention Shifts

In everyday life, faces with emotional expressions quickly attract attention and eye-movements. To study the neural mechanisms of such emotion-driven attention by means of event-related brain potentials (ERPs), tasks that employ covert shifts of attention are commonly used, in which participants need to inhibit natural eye-movements towards stimuli. It remains, however, unclear how shifts of attention to emotional faces with and without eye-movements differ from each other. The current preregistered study aimed to investigate neural differences between covert and overt emotion-driven attention. We combined eye-tracking with measurements of ERPs to compare shifts of attention to faces with happy, angry or neutral expressions when eye-movements were either executed (Go conditions) or withheld (No-go conditions). Happy and angry faces led to larger EPN amplitudes, shorter latencies of the P1 component and faster saccades, suggesting that emotional expressions significantly affected shifts of attention. Several ERPs (N170, EPN, LPC), were augmented in amplitude when attention was shifted with an eye-movement, indicating an enhanced neural processing of faces if eye-movements had to be executed together with a reallocation of attention. However, the modulation of ERPs by facial expressions did not differ between the Go and No-go conditions, suggesting that emotional content enhances both covert and overt shifts of attention. In summary, our results indicate that overt and covert attention shifts differ but are comparably affected by emotional content.

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The role of attention shifts in the categorization of continuous dimensioned stimuli

Psychological Research ◽

10.1007/s004260000028 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 64 (2) ◽

pp. 105-116 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Michael L. Kalish ◽

John K. Kruschke

Keyword(s):

Attention Shifts

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Visual Perception in the Periphery: The Role of Covert Attention Vectors in the Extraction of Semantic Information

10.1101/2020.08.02.231803 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ikaasa Suri ◽

Patrick McGranor Wilson ◽

Saba Doustmohammadi ◽

Anna De Schutter ◽

Thida Sandy Chunwatanapong ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Visual Perception ◽

Semantic Information ◽

Ganglion Cells ◽

Covert Attention ◽

Retinal Ganglion ◽

Scale Invariant ◽

Dorsal Pathway ◽

Ventral Pathway ◽

Foveal Center

AbstractUnder covert attention, our visual perception deteriorates dramatically as eccentricity increases. This reduction of peripheral visual acuity (PVA) is partially due to the coarse sampling of the retinal ganglion cells towards the periphery, but this property cannot be solely responsible. Other factors, such as character crowding, have been studied, yet the origin of the poor PVA is not entirely understood. This gap motivated us to investigate the PVA by varying the crowding conditions systematically. Under completely crowded conditions (i.e. resembling a full page of text), PVA was observed to be eight times worse than the PVA under uncrowded conditions. By partially crowding the periphery, we obtained PVA values between the fully crowded and uncrowded conditions. On the other hand, crowding the fovea center while leaving the periphery uncrowded improved PVA relative to the uncrowded case. These results support a model for a top-down “covert attention vector” that assists the resulting PVA in a manner analogous to saccadic eye movement for overt attention. We speculate that the attention vector instructs the dorsal pathway to transform the peripheral character to the foveal center. Then, the scale-invariant log-polar retinotopy of the ventral pathway can scale the centered visual input to match the prior memory of the specific character shape.

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Preaching and performance: Theo-dramatic paradoxes in a South African sermon

STJ | Stellenbosch Theological Journal ◽

10.17570/stj.2017.v3n1.a14 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ian A Nell

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

South African ◽

Specific Time ◽

Specific Approach ◽

History Of ◽

And Performance ◽

The Way ◽

Attention Shifts

Preaching and performance is a relatively recent development in homiletical discourses and preaching practices. There is much promise in approaching preaching in this creative way. Attention will be paid to different promises related to this homiletical approach. In a next round of reflection the attention shifts to the way in which a specific approach to performance, also known as theo-drama, can not only enhance the preaching act, but also helps to understand the paradoxical role of the preacher, the audience and even God in the preaching event. This will be illustrated by looking at one of the sermons of John de Gruchy, which he preached in a very specific time in the history of South Africa. Attention will also be given to the way in which he performed a prophetic and therefore paradoxical role in his opposition to the apartheid government.

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The normative role of the EU in the eastern region

Practising EU Foreign Policy ◽

10.7228/manchester/9780719095894.003.0005 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Beatrix Futák-Campbell

Keyword(s):

Foreign Policy ◽

Reform Process ◽

Eastern Region ◽

Normative Power ◽

Eu Foreign Policy ◽

Normative Role ◽

The Eu ◽

Russian Model ◽

Attention Shifts

This chapter focuses on norms and the functions of norms in EU foreign policy. The analysis presented here offers an evaluation of the EU’s role as a normative power in the region, examining what EU practitioners understand as norms. It also offers insight in the context in which EU foreign policy is practiced through norms which in turn guide the practices of EU practitioners. The following patterns emerge from the data. First, how norms are constructed, what norms the EU can spread to its neighbours and how practitioners can urge neighbouring states to embrace these norms through the EU’s prescribed reform process. Second, practitioners’ attention shifts to the EU model of norms itself. They strive not only to make the specific EU model relevant but also attractive to the neighbours. In addition, they claim to have the necessary expertise to assist these countries to emulate this model. Third, practitioners address two sources of non-compliance: one is non-alignment with the EU model, and the second is the existence of a competing model, the Russian model, that does not quite meet EU standards of norms. Finally, practitioners put forward an all-encompassing EU-centric view that reveals a particular ethnocentric view.

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Raising Children

International Journal of Applied Philosophy ◽

10.5840/ijap201981115 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 33 (1) ◽

pp. 43-56

Author(s):

María del Mar Cabezas Hernández ◽

Keyword(s):

Preventive Measures ◽

Child Poverty ◽

The State ◽

Raising Children ◽

Culture Of Care ◽

Normative Question ◽

Attention Shifts

This article aims to answer a core normative question concerning child poverty: What types of responsibilities should be assumed by the state and caregivers as the main agents of justice involved in the problem? By approaching this question, I aim to explore the complex triangulation between children, caregivers, and the state, as well as the paradox of the double role of caregivers as former victims and current agents of justice. In order to accomplish this, I will first present the internal and external issues that arise when the focus is placed on the victims, and, secondly, when attention shifts to the perpetrators. Finally, I will advocate for the need to fundamentally reframe the debates, centering attention on the damage, on investing the construction of a culture of care that includes preventive measures to dismantle common prejudices about poverty and neglect, and on introducing measures to care for the caregivers as a necessary step to break the perpetuation of (child) poverty.

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Attentional Functions of the Superior Colliculus

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199675111.013.014 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Richard J. Krauzlis

Keyword(s):

Superior Colliculus ◽

Attention Capture ◽

Visual Signals ◽

Covert Attention ◽

Central Component ◽

Motor Pathways ◽

Electrical Microstimulation ◽

Priority Map ◽

Selection Of

The superior colliculus (SC) plays an important role in both overt and covert attention. In primates, the SC is well known to be a central component of the motor pathways that orient the eyes and head to important objects in the environment. Accordingly, neurons in the SC show enhanced responses that will be the target of orienting movements, compared to stimuli that will be ignored. Single-neuron recordings in the SC have revealed a variety of attention-related effects, including changes in activity related to bottom-up and top-down attention, attention capture, and inhibition of return. These findings support the view of the SC as a priority map that represents the location of important objects in the visual environment. Manipulation of SC activity by electrical microstimulation and chemical inactivation shows that the SC is not simply a recipient of attention-related effects, but plays a causal role in these processes. In particular, activity in the SC plays a major role in the selection of targets for saccades, and also for pursuit eye movements and movements of the hand. Moreover, activity in the SC is important not only for the control of overt attention, but also plays a crucial role in covert attention—the processing of visual signals for perceptual judgements even in the absence of orienting movements. The mechanisms mediating the role of the SC in the control of covert attention are not yet known, but current models emphasize interactions between the SC and areas of the cerebral cortex.

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Overt and covert attention shifts to emotional faces: Combining EEG, eye tracking, and a go/no‐go paradigm

Psychophysiology ◽

10.1111/psyp.13838 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Louisa Kulke ◽

Lena Brümmer ◽

Arezoo Pooresmaeili ◽

Annekathrin Schacht

Keyword(s):

Eye Tracking ◽

Covert Attention ◽

Emotional Faces ◽

Attention Shifts

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