scholarly journals Distractor Ignoring: Strategies, Learning, and Passive Filtering

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 600-606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joy J. Geng ◽  
Bo-Yeong Won ◽  
Nancy B. Carlisle
Keyword(s):  
Target Selection ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
Selection Of

Our sensory environments contain more information than we can process, and successful behaviors require the ability to separate task-relevant information from task-irrelevant information. Much research on attention has focused on the mechanisms that result in selection of desired information, but much less is known about how distracting information is ignored. Here, we describe evidence that strategic, learned, and passive information can all contribute to better distractor ignoring. The evidence suggests that there are multiple ways in which distractor ignoring is supported, and these ways may be different from those of target selection. Future work will need to identify the mechanisms by which each source of information adjusts attentional priority such that irrelevant information is better ignored.

scholarly journals Prefrontal control of visual distraction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D. Cosman ◽  
Geoffrey F. Woodman ◽  
Jeffrey D. Schall
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Sensory Cortex ◽  
Extrastriate Cortex ◽  
Neural Firing ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Task Irrelevant

SummaryAvoiding distraction by salient irrelevant stimuli is critical to accomplishing daily tasks. Regions of prefrontal cortex control attention by enhancing the representation of task-relevant information in sensory cortex, which can be measured directly in modulation of both single neurons and averaging of the scalp-recorded electroencephalogram [1,2]. However, when irrelevant information is particularly conspicuous, it may distract attention and interfere with the selection of behaviorally relevant information. Many studies have shown that that distraction can be minimized via top-down control [3–5], but the cognitive and neural mechanisms giving rise to this control over distraction remain uncertain and vigorously debated [6–8]. Bridging neurophysiology to electrophysiology, we simultaneously recorded neurons in prefrontal cortex and event-related potentials (ERPs) over extrastriate visual cortex to track the processing of salient distractors during a visual search task. Critically, we observed robust suppression of salient distractor representations in both cortical areas, with suppression arising in prefrontal cortex before being manifest in the ERP signal over extrastriate cortex. Furthermore, only prefrontal neurons that participated in selecting the task-relevant target also showed suppression of the task-irrelevant distractor. This suggests a common prefrontal mechanism for target selection and distractor suppression, with input from prefrontal cortex being responsible for both selecting task-relevant and suppressing task-irrelevant information in sensory cortex. Taken together, our results resolve a long-standing debate over the mechanisms that prevent distraction, and provide the first evidence directly linking suppressed neural firing in prefrontal cortex with surface ERP measures of distractor suppression.

scholarly journals A bimodal extension of the Eriksen flanker task

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolf Ulrich ◽  
Laura Prislan ◽  
Jeff Miller
Keyword(s):  
Visual Target ◽  
Target Item ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Response Competition ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Flanker Effect ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Visual Targets ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Abstract The Eriksen flanker task is a traditional conflict paradigm for studying the influence of task-irrelevant information on the processing of task-relevant information. In this task, participants are asked to respond to a visual target item (e.g., a letter) that is flanked by task-irrelevant items (e.g., also letters). Responses are typically faster and more accurate when the task-irrelevant information is response-congruent with the visual target than when it is incongruent. Several researchers have attributed the starting point of this flanker effect to poor selective filtering at a perceptual level (e.g., spotlight models), which subsequently produces response competition at post-perceptual stages. The present study examined whether a flanker-like effect could also be established within a bimodal analog of the flanker task with auditory irrelevant letters and visual target letters, which must be processed along different processing routes. The results of two experiments revealed that a flanker-like effect is also present with bimodal stimuli. In contrast to the unimodal flanker task, however, the effect only emerged when flankers and targets shared the same letter name, but not when they were different letters mapped onto the same response. We conclude that the auditory flankers can influence the time needed to recognize visual targets but do not directly activate their associated responses.

scholarly journals Selection and suppression of visual information in the macaque prefrontal cortex

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Di Bello ◽  
S. Ben Hadj Hassen ◽  
E. Astrand ◽  
S. Ben Hamed
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Attentional Selection ◽  
Prefrontal Cortical ◽  
Cognitive Framework ◽  
Task Irrelevant

AbstractIn everyday life, we are continuously struggling at focusing on our current goals while at the same time avoiding distractions. Attention is the neuro-cognitive process devoted to the selection of behaviorally relevant sensory information while at the same time preventing distraction by irrelevant information. Visual selection can be implemented by both long-term (learning-based spatial prioritization) and short term (dynamic spatial attention) mechanisms. On the other hand, distraction can be prevented proactively, by strategically prioritizing task-relevant information at the expense of irrelevant information, or reactively, by actively suppressing the processing of distractors. The distinctive neuronal signature of each of these four processes is largely unknown. Likewise, how selection and suppression mechanisms interact to drive perception has never been explored neither at the behavioral nor at the neuronal level. Here, we apply machine-learning decoding methods to prefrontal cortical (PFC) activity to monitor dynamic spatial attention with an unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. This leads to several novel observations. We first identify independent behavioral and neuronal signatures for learning-based attention prioritization and dynamic attentional selection. Second, we identify distinct behavioral and neuronal signatures for proactive and reactive suppression mechanisms. We find that while distracting task-relevant information is suppressed proactively, task-irrelevant information is suppressed reactively. Critically, we show that distractor suppression, whether proactive or reactive, strongly depends on both learning-based attention prioritization and dynamic attentional selection. Overall, we thus provide a unified neuro-cognitive framework describing how the prefrontal cortex implements spatial selection and distractor suppression in order to flexibly optimize behavior in dynamic environments.

Cueing Employability in the Gig Economy: Effects of Task-Relevant and Task-Irrelevant Information on Fiverr

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caleb T. Carr ◽  
Robert D. Hall ◽  
Adam J. Mason ◽  
Eric J. Varney
Keyword(s):  
Relevant Information ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Job Skills ◽  
Job Fit ◽  
Stimulus Contrast ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
And Task

When evaluating an applicant online, individuals are often concurrently exposed to a diverse cross-section of self- and other-generated information with varying relevance to the candidate’s actual job skills. Moreover, these various data may not always be internally consistent. Utilizing profiles on the microtask site Fiverr, a fully-crossed 2 × 2 × 2 experiment (N= 92) tested main and interaction effects of exposure positively- and negatively-valenced (1) self-generated task-relevant, (2) self-generated task-irrlevant photographic, and (3) other-generated task-relevant information, all within the same stimulus. Contrast analyses results support significant interactions among cues on perceptions of an applicants’ employability and person-job fit. The significant two- and three-way interactions are discussed with respect to warranting theory and the halo effect, and practical implications for applicants and employers are presented.

Task-Relevance Modulates the Effects of Peripheral Distractors

2007 ◽  
Vol 60 (9) ◽  
pp. 1216-1226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Limor Lichtenstein-Vidne ◽  
Avishai Henik ◽  
Ziad Safadi
Keyword(s):  
Relevant Information ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Focus Of Attention ◽  
Task Relevance ◽  
Task Irrelevant

The current study investigated whether task-relevant information affects performance differently from how information that is not relevant for the task does when presented peripherally and centrally. In three experiments a target appeared inside the focus of attention, whereas a to-be-ignored distractor appeared either in the periphery (Experiments 1 and 2) or at the centre (Experiment 3) of attention. In each trial the distractor carried both task-relevant and irrelevant information. The results confirmed the “task relevance” hypothesis: Task-irrelevant information affected performance only when it appeared at the centre of attention, whereas task-relevant information affected performance when it appeared inside as well as outside the main focus of attention. The current results do not support suggestions that spatial stimuli (e.g., arrows) draw attention automatically regardless of task relevance.

scholarly journals fMRI Studies of Stroop Tasks Reveal Unique Roles of Anterior and Posterior Brain Systems in Attentional Selection

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 988-1000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie T. Banich ◽  
Michael P. Milham ◽  
Ruthann Atchley ◽  
Neal J. Cohen ◽  
Andrew Webb ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Color Word ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Attentional Selection ◽  
Differential Sensitivity ◽  
Attentional Demands ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Word Task ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Stroop Tasks

The brain's attentional system identifies and selects information that is task-relevant while ignoring information that is task-irrelevant. In two experiments using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined the effects of varying task-relevant information compared to task-irrelevant information. In the first experiment, we compared patterns of activation as attentional demands were increased for two Stroop tasks that differed in the task-relevant information, but not the task-irrelevant information: a color-word task and a spatial-word task. Distinct subdivisions of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the precuneus became activated for each task, indicating differential sensitivity of these regions to task-relevant information (e.g., spatial information vs. color). In the second experiment, we compared patterns of activation with increased attentional demands for two Stroop tasks that differed in task-irrelevant information, but not task-relevant information: a color-word task and color-object task. Little differentiation in activation for dorsolateral prefrontal and precuneus regions was observed, indicating a relative insensitivity of these regions to task-irrelevant information. However, we observed a differentiation in the pattern of activity for posterior regions. There were unique areas of activation in parietal regions for the color-word task and in occipito-temporal regions for the color-object task. No increase in activation was observed in regions responsible for processing the perceptual attribute of color. The results of this second experiment indicate that attentional selection in tasks such as the Stroop task, which contain multiple potential sources of relevant information (e.g., the word vs. its ink color), acts more by modulating the processing of task-irrelevant information than by modulating processing of task-relevant information.

scholarly journals A model-based approach to disentangling facilitation and interference effects in conflict tasks

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan J. Evans ◽  
Mathieu Servant
Keyword(s):  
Relevant Information ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Measurement Properties ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Interference Effects ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Parameter Recovery ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Conflict Effect ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Conflict tasks have become one of the most dominant paradigms within cognitive psychology, with their key finding being the conflict effect: that participants are slower and less accurate when task-irrelevant information conflicts with task-relevant information (i.e., incompatible trials), compared to when these sources of information are consistent (i.e., compatible trials). However, the conflict effect can consist of two separate effects: facilitation effects, which is the amount of benefit provided by consistent task-irrelevant information, and interference effects, which is the amount of impairment caused by conflicting task-irrelevant information. While previous studies have attempted to disentangle these effects using neutral trials, which contrast compatible and incompatible trials to trials that are designed to have neutral task-irrelevant information, these analyses rely on the assumptions of Donder’s subtractive method, which are difficult to verify and may be violated in some circumstances. Here, we develop a model-based approach for disentangling facilitation and interference effects, which extends the existing diffusion model for conflict tasks (DMC) framework to allow for different levels of automatic activation in compatible and incompatible trials. Comprehensive parameter recovery assessments display the robust measurement properties of our model-based approach, which we apply to 9 previous data sets from the flanker (6) and Simon (3) tasks. Our findings suggest asymmetric facilitation and interference effects, where interference effects appear to be present for most participants across most studies, whereas facilitation effects appear to be small or non-existent. We believe that our novel model-based approach provides an important step forward for understanding how information processing operates in conflict tasks, allowing researchers to assess the convergence or divergence between experimental-based (i.e., neutral trials) and model-based approaches when investigating facilitation and interference effects.

Spatial Representations as an Emergent Feature of Perceptual Processing

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmund Wascher ◽  
C. Beste
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Integrated Network ◽  
Perceptual Maps ◽  
Emergent Feature ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Selection Of

Spatial selection of relevant information has been proposed to reflect an emergent feature of stimulus processing within an integrated network of perceptual areas. Stimulus-based and intention-based sources of information might converge in a common stage when spatial maps are generated. This approach appears to be inconsistent with the assumption of distinct mechanisms for stimulus-driven and top-down controlled attention. In two experiments, the common ground of stimulus-driven and intention-based attention was tested by means of event-related potentials (ERPs) in the human EEG. In both experiments, the processing of a single transient was compared to the selection of a physically comparable stimulus among distractors. While single transients evoked a spatially sensitive N1, the extraction of relevant information out of a more complex display was reflected in an N2pc. The high similarity of the spatial portion of these two components (Experiment 1), and the replication of this finding for the vertical axis (Experiment 2) indicate that these two ERP components might both reflect the spatial representation of relevant information as derived from the organization of perceptual maps, just at different points in time.

Pulvino-cortical interaction: an integrative role in the control of attention

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexia Bourgeois ◽  
Carole Guedj ◽  
Emmanuel Carrera ◽  
Patrik Vuilleumier
Keyword(s):  
Executive Control ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Cortical Circuits ◽  
Attention And Executive Control ◽  
Neural Communication ◽  
Subcortical Regions ◽  
Theoretical Proposal ◽  
Selection Of

Selective attention is a fundamental cognitive function that guides behavior by selecting and prioritizing salient or relevant sensory information of our environment. Despite early evidence and theoretical proposal pointing to an implication of thalamic control in attention, most studies in the past two decades focused on cortical substrates, largely ignoring the contribution of subcortical regions as well as cortico-subcortical interactions. Here, we suggest a key role of the pulvinar in the selection of salient and relevant information via its involvement in priority maps computation. Prioritization may be achieved through a pulvinar- mediated generation of alpha oscillations, which may then modulate neuronal gain in thalamo-cortical circuits. Such mechanism might orchestrate the synchrony of cortico-cortical interaction, by rendering neural communication more effective, precise and selective. We propose that this theoretical framework will support a timely shift from the prevailing cortico- centric view of cognition to a more integrative perspective of thalamic contributions to attention and executive control processes.

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