scholarly journals Using a More Intuitive Cue in a Temporal Attention Discrimination Task to Compare Endogenous and Exogenous Mechanisms

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin R McCormick ◽  
Ralph S. Redden ◽  
Raymond M Klein
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Temporal Attention ◽  
Cognitive Mechanism ◽  
Speed And Accuracy

Temporal attention is a cognitive mechanism that allows individuals to prepare to respond to ananticipated event. Lawrence and Klein (2013) distinguished two forms of temporal attention: oneelicited by purely endogenous alerting mechanisms, and one elicited through exogenous alertingmechanisms. Recently, McCormick et al. displayed that these mechanisms generate additiveeffects on reaction time, however more informative speed and accuracy comparisons were notpossible due to them being measured during a detection task. The current pair of experimentslooks to compare these two forms of temporal attention in a discrimination task while measuringboth speed and accuracy, by inducing methodological modifications that lower task demand.These manipulations were successful, as temporal cueing effects were observed for both thecombined form and the less-studied purely endogenous form. However, speed-accuracyperformance for these two forms of temporal attention did not align with our predictions basedon Lawrence and Klein (2013), leading us to speculate on the generalizability of their results.

scholarly journals Optimal Temporal Decoding of Neural Population Responses in a Reaction-Time Visual Detection Task

2008 ◽  
Vol 99 (3) ◽  
pp. 1366-1379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuzhi Chen ◽  
Wilson S. Geisler ◽  
Eyal Seidemann
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Initial Response ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Ideal Observer ◽  
Neural Population ◽  
Population Responses ◽  
Temporal Correlations ◽  
Lower Amplitude ◽  
Temporal Decorrelation ◽  
Speed And Accuracy

Behavioral performance in detection and discrimination tasks is likely to be limited by the quality and nature of the signals carried by populations of neurons in early sensory cortical areas. Here we used voltage-sensitive dye imaging (VSDI) to directly measure neural population responses in the primary visual cortex (V1) of monkeys performing a reaction-time detection task. Focusing on the temporal properties of the population responses, we found that V1 responses are consistent with a stimulus-evoked response with amplitude and latency that depend on target contrast and a stimulus-independent additive noise with long-lasting temporal correlations. The noise had much lower amplitude than the ongoing activity reported previously in anesthetized animals. To understand the implications of these properties for subsequent processing stages that mediate behavior, we derived the Bayesian ideal observer that specifies how to optimally use neural responses in reaction time tasks. Using the ideal observer analysis, we show that 1) the observed temporal correlations limit the performance benefit that can be attained by accumulating V1 responses over time, 2) a simple temporal decorrelation operation with time-lagged excitation and inhibition minimizes the detrimental effect of these correlations, 3) the neural information relevant for target detection is concentrated in the initial response following stimulus onset, and 4) a decoder that optimally uses V1 responses far outperforms the monkey in both speed and accuracy. Finally, we demonstrate that for our particular detection task, temporal decorrelation followed by an appropriate running integrator can approach the speed and accuracy of the optimal decoder.

scholarly journals An Integrated Perspective on Spatio-Temporal Attention and Infant Language Acquisition

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 1592
Author(s):  
Sofia Russo ◽  
Giulia Calignano ◽  
Marco Dispaldro ◽  
Eloisa Valenza
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Speech Signal ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Temporal Attention ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Infant Language

Efficiency in the early ability to switch attention toward competing visual stimuli (spatial attention) may be linked to future ability to detect rapid acoustic changes in linguistic stimuli (temporal attention). To test this hypothesis, we compared individual performances in the same cohort of Italian-learning infants in two separate tasks: (i) an overlap task, measuring disengagement efficiency for visual stimuli at 4 months (Experiment 1), and (ii) an auditory discrimination task for trochaic syllabic sequences at 7 months (Experiment 2). Our results indicate that an infant’s efficiency in processing competing information in the visual field (i.e., visuospatial attention; Exp. 1) correlates with the subsequent ability to orient temporal attention toward relevant acoustic changes in the speech signal (i.e., temporal attention; Exp. 2). These results point out the involvement of domain-general attentional processes (not specific to language or the sensorial domain) playing a pivotal role in the development of early language skills in infancy.

Semantic memory is both impaired and anomalous in schizophrenia

1994 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 193-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Y. H. Chen ◽  
A. J. Wilkins ◽  
P. J. McKenna
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Semantic Memory ◽  
Reaction Time Task ◽  
Semantic Category ◽  
Semantic Relationship ◽  
Conceptual Category ◽  
Ambiguous Words ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients ◽  
Speed And Accuracy ◽  
Normal Controls

SynopsisThe integrity of semantic memory in schizophrenia was examined in a reaction time task requiring subjects to verify words as members or non-members of a conceptual category, where the words differed in their degree of semantic relationship to the category. Compared to matched normal controls, 28 schizophrenic patients were impaired on the task, showing slower responses in all conditions. In addition, their performance was anomalous in that they took longest to respond to items that were outside the category but semantically related to it, in contrast to the controls who took the longest to respond to ambiguous words at the borderline of the category. The pattern of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ responses of the patients was anomalous in a similar way. In both speed and accuracy of responding, the findings indicate that there is an outward shift of semantic category boundaries in schizophrenia.

Alcohol and Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff

1979 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. H. RUNDELL ◽  
HAROLD L. WILLIAMS
Keyword(s):  
Body Weight ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Pitch Discrimination ◽  
Alcohol Dose ◽  
Independent Effects ◽  
Speed Accuracy ◽  
Accuracy Tradeoff ◽  
And Task

Performance on two auditory choice reaction time (RT) tasks was studied in a group of 12 subjects under the influence of graded doses of ethyl alcohol ranging from placebo to 1 g/kg body weight. Deadline procedures were employed in a side discrimination and a pitch discrimination task to permit the calculation of speed-accuracy tradeoff functions (accuracy versus RT). Accuracy declined as a function of dose, but alcohol did not significantly influence RT. Conversely, accuracy was not affected by task; but the pitch discrimination task required an average of 88 ms more time than the side task. Alcohol dose and task produced independent effects on the speed-accuracy tradeoff function. As dose increased, the slope of the tradeoff function declined; but slopes were equivalent for the two tasks. On the other hand, the x-intercept (where accuracy equals chance levels) was 90 ms greater for the pitch task than for the side task.

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