scholarly journals To grasp the world at a glance: The role of attention in visual and semantic associative processing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurit Gronau
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Relational Processing ◽  
Associative Processing ◽  
Visual Background ◽  
The World ◽  
High Level

Associative relations among words, concepts and percepts are the core building blocks of high-level cognition. When viewing the world ‘at a glance’, the associative relations between objects in a scene, or between an object and its visual background are extracted rapidly. The extent to which such relational processing requires attentional capacity, however, has been heavily disputed over the years. In the present manuscript I review studies investigating scene-object and object-object associative processing. I then present a series of studies in which I assessed the necessity of spatial attention to various types of visual-semantic relations within a scene. Importantly, in all studies, the spatial and temporal aspects of visual attention were tightly controlled in an attempt to minimize unintentional attention shifts from ‘attended’ to ‘unattended’ regions. Pairs of stimuli - either objects, scenes, or a scene and an object - were briefly presented on each trial, while participants were asked to detect a pre-defined category of stimuli (e.g., an animal, a nonsense shape). Response times (RTs) to the target detection task were registered when visual attention spanned both stimuli in a pair vs. when attention was focused on only one of two stimuli. Findings consistently demonstrated rapid associative processing when stimuli were fully attended, i.e., shorter RTs to associated than unassociated pairs. Focusing attention on a single stimulus only, however, largely impaired this relational processing. The only exception to this result pattern was observed with the target stimuli that were prioritized by task demands: such stimuli continued to affect performance even when positioned at an unattended location, indicating that their relations with the attended items were well processed and analyzed. Our findings suggest that attention plays a critical role in processing visual-associative relations when these involve stimuli that are irrelevant to one's immediate goals.

scholarly journals To Grasp the World at a Glance: The Role of Attention in Visual and Semantic Associative Processing

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 191
Author(s):  
Nurit Gronau
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Relational Processing ◽  
Associative Processing ◽  
The World ◽  
High Level ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Associative relations among words, concepts and percepts are the core building blocks of high-level cognition. When viewing the world ‘at a glance’, the associative relations between objects in a scene, or between an object and its visual background, are extracted rapidly. The extent to which such relational processing requires attentional capacity, however, has been heavily disputed over the years. In the present manuscript, I review studies investigating scene–object and object–object associative processing. I then present a series of studies in which I assessed the necessity of spatial attention to various types of visual–semantic relations within a scene. Importantly, in all studies, the spatial and temporal aspects of visual attention were tightly controlled in an attempt to minimize unintentional attention shifts from ‘attended’ to ‘unattended’ regions. Pairs of stimuli—either objects, scenes or a scene and an object—were briefly presented on each trial, while participants were asked to detect a pre-defined target category (e.g., an animal, a nonsense shape). Response times (RTs) to the target detection task were registered when visual attention spanned both stimuli in a pair vs. when attention was focused on only one of two stimuli. Among non-prioritized stimuli that were not defined as to-be-detected targets, findings consistently demonstrated rapid associative processing when stimuli were fully attended, i.e., shorter RTs to associated than unassociated pairs. Focusing attention on a single stimulus only, however, largely impaired this relational processing. Notably, prioritized targets continued to affect performance even when positioned at an unattended location, and their associative relations with the attended items were well processed and analyzed. Our findings portray an important dissociation between unattended task-irrelevant and task-relevant items: while the former require spatial attentional resources in order to be linked to stimuli positioned inside the attentional focus, the latter may influence high-level recognition and associative processes via feature-based attentional mechanisms that are largely independent of spatial attention.

scholarly journals Safety of health workers: a key priority in COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhakta Bahadur K.C.
Keyword(s):  
Health System ◽  
Capacity Building ◽  
Health Workforce ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Safety Equipment ◽  
High Exposure ◽  
The World ◽  
High Level

Although, the health workforce is one of the most significant building blocks of the health system, the preparation to ensure safety from COVID-19 remains inadequate across the world. Therefore, there is an increasingly growing number of health workers being infected from COVID-19 globally, making health workers the most vulnerable population to the pandemic. Most of the countries lack the safety equipment in place resulting in high exposure of health workers to this fatal SARS-COV2. Besides these, health workers' behaviour is also contributing infection to themselves. A high-level political commitment together with the investment in the health sectors to increase the supply of protective gears and capacity building of health workers is key to save and protect them from COVID-19 pandemic.

Guiding Visual Attention by Exploiting Crossmodal Spatial Links: An Application in Air Traffic Control

2007 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 220-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shameem Hameed ◽  
Swapnaa Jayaraman ◽  
Melissa Ballard ◽  
Nadine Sarter
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Traffic Control ◽  
Air Traffic Control ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Air Traffic ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Critical Event ◽  
Detection Rates ◽  
Tactile Cues ◽  
Participant Response

Recent research on multimodal information processing has provided evidence for the existence of crossmodal links in spatial attention between vision, audition, and touch. The present study examined whether these links can be exploited to support attention allocation in workplaces that involve competing task demands and the potential for visual data overload. In particular, the effectiveness of tactile cues for guiding visual attention to the location of a critical event was tested in the context of an air traffic control simulation. Participants monitored a display depicting the flight paths of 40 aircraft and were presented with tactile cues indicating either just the occurrence, or both the occurrence and display location, of an event requiring a participant response. Tactile cuing, especially when combined with location information, resulted in significantly higher detection rates and faster response times to these events. These findings indicate that tactile cuing is a promising means of directing visual attention in a data-driven manner.

Individual Differences in Mental Rotation

2013 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 164-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Khooshabeh ◽  
Mary Hegarty ◽  
Thomas F. Shipley
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Mental Rotation ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Mental Rotation Task ◽  
Imagery Ability ◽  
Alternative Strategies

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that imagery ability and figural complexity interact to affect the choice of mental rotation strategies. Participants performed the Shepard and Metzler (1971) mental rotation task. On half of the trials, the 3-D figures were manipulated to create “fragmented” figures, with some cubes missing. Good imagers were less accurate and had longer response times on fragmented figures than on complete figures. Poor imagers performed similarly on fragmented and complete figures. These results suggest that good imagers use holistic mental rotation strategies by default, but switch to alternative strategies depending on task demands, whereas poor imagers are less flexible and use piecemeal strategies regardless of the task demands.

Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adib Rifqi Setiawan
Keyword(s):  
Education System ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
American University ◽  
The North ◽  
The World ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
High Level ◽  
Education And Development

“The real treasure is in the minds of our children, and all we have to do is extract it.” Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah writes in website Queen Rania Foundation For Education And Development www.qrf.org/en. Rania Al Yassin was born on August 31, 1970. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the American University of Cairo in 1991. She applied this, first, to a banking career in Jordan and, later, to the information technology sector. After marrying Prince Abdullah bin Al Hussein on June 10, 1993, they went on to have four children: Prince Hussein, Princess Iman, Princess Salma, and Prince Hashem. In addition to being a wife and mother, Queen Rania works hard to lift the lives of Jordanians by supporting their endeavours and helping to create new opportunities for them. Locally, she is committed to breathe new life into the public education system; empower communities and women especially through microfinance initiatives; protect children and families; and drive innovation, technology and entrepreneurship, especially amongst young people. Internationally, Queen Rania is an advocate for tolerance, compassion and bridge building between people of all cultures and backgrounds. Her efforts to simultaneously challenge stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims, and promote greater understanding and acceptance between people of all faiths and cultures, have won her global recognition. Her Majesty’s passion is education. She believes that every Jordanian girl and boy, and all children, should have access not only to stimulating classrooms and modern curricula, but inspiring teachers and technology that can connect Jordan’s children to the world and the world to Jordan’s children. Her efforts in the education sector complement the work of the Ministry of Education through initiatives such as the Jordan Education Initiative, the Queen Rania Teachers Academy, Madrasati, Edraak and others. To realize these and so much more, Queen Rania has encouraged private sector partners to drive improvements and strengthen the foundations of Jordan’s education system. Queen Rania is also a global voice for access to quality education for children around the world. In 2009, Her Majesty championed the 1 Goal campaign for education; she is Honorary Chair of the UN Girl’s Education Initiatives and has advocated access to education in forums and gatherings around the world. Her work and her efforts to improve the learning opportunities for children have been recognized at the highest levels, nationally, regionally and internationally. Additionally, through her position on their boards, Her Majesty contributes to the work of the United Nations Fund and the World Economic Forum. She is the Eminent Advocate for UNICEF; and she was part of the UN appointed High Level Panel who advised on the shape and content of the Sustainable Development Goals which aim to improve the lives of millions of people before 2030. In recognition of her work, Her Majesty has humbly accepted many awards, locally, regionally and globally. These include the Walther Rathenau Award from the Walther RathenauInstitut in Germany for her efforts to greater peace and understanding; the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award from Tech Awards, USA; the Arab Knight of Giving Award from Arab Giving Forum, UAE; the North South Prize by the North South Prize, Portugal; as well as the YouTube Visionary Award. Her Majesty authored several books primarily for children including the Sandwich Swap, which was inspired by her own childhood experiences.

Global warming influences dynamics of plague’s epidemic manifestations in XX-XXI centuries

2017 ◽  
pp. 38-40
Author(s):  
E.S. Zenkevich ◽  
N.V. Popov
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Modern Trend ◽  
Climate Fluctuations ◽  
The World ◽  
Low Incidence ◽  
High Level

During the second half of 20th century, a high level of plague incidence in the world was in 1960–1979 and 1990–2009. The significant decrease of infection cases was in 1950–1959, 1980–1989, 2010–2015. It is noticed, that the observed cyclical nature of the alternation of high and low incidence plague’s periods, in many respects related to modern trend of climate fluctuations.

SYNONYMY OF STABLE PHRASES IN THE DICTIONARY OF SMOLENSK DIALECTS: THE ANALYSIS EXPERIENCE

2019 ◽  
pp. 122-132
Author(s):  
Nina Maksimchuk
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
National Language ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Spiritual World ◽  
Key Word ◽  
The World ◽  
Volumetric Representation ◽  
High Level ◽  
Linguistic Units

The attention of modern linguistics to the study of verbal representatives of the mental essence (both individual and collective one) of the native speakers involves an appeal to all subsystems of the national language where territorial dialects take a significant part. The analysis of dialect linguistic units possessing linguistic and cultural value is considered as a necessary way for the study of people’s worldview and perception of the world, national mentality as a whole. The ability of stable phrases (phraseological units) to preserve and express a native speaker’s attitude to the world around them is the basis for the use of the analysis of folk phraseology as a way of penetration into a speaker’s spiritual world. Volumetric representation of the external and internal peculiarities of stable phrases allows the author to get their systematization in the form of phraseosemantic field consisting of different kinds singled out in phraseosemantic groups. The article deals with stable phrases of synonymic value recorded in the Dictionary of Smolensk dialects and stable phrases forming a phraseosemantic group. These phrases are analyzed taking into account the semantic structure of the key word, the characteristics of the dependent word, and the method of forming phraseological semantics. On the example of the analysis of phrases with the key word «bit’» and a synonymic series with the semantic dominant «bezdel’nichat’», the article discusses the peculiarities of phraseological nomination in Smolensk dialects and confirms a high level of connotativity and evaluation in the folk phraseology.

Exosomal miR-214-5p Released from Glioblastoma Cells Modulates Inflammatory Response of Microglia after Lipopolysaccharide Stimulation through Targeting CXCR5

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian-kai Yang ◽  
Hong-jiang Liu ◽  
Yuanyu Wang ◽  
Chen Li ◽  
Ji-peng Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Inflammatory Response ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Luciferase Reporter ◽  
Clinical Prognosis ◽  
Direct Target ◽  
And Migration ◽  
High Level ◽  
Cxcr5 Expression ◽  
Proliferation And Migration

Background and Objective: Exosomes communicate inter-cellularly and miRNAs play critical roles in this scenario. MiR-214-5p was implicated in multiple tumors with diverse functions uncovered. However, whether miR-214-5p is mechanistically involved in glioblastoma, especially via exosomal pathway, is still elusive. Here we sought to comprehensively address the critical role of exosomal miR-214-5p in glioblastoma (GBM) microenvironment.Methods:The relative expression of miR-214-5p was determined by real-time PCR. Cell viability and migration were measured by MTT and transwell chamber assays, respectively. The secretory cytokines were measured with ELISA kits. The regulatory effect of miR-214-5p on CXCR5 expression was interrogated by luciferase reporter assay. Protein level was analyzed by Western blot.Results:We demonstrated that miR-214-5p was aberrantly overexpressed in GBM and associated with poorer clinical prognosis. High level of miR-214-5p significantly contributed to cell proliferation and migration. GBM-derived exosomal miR-214-5p promoted inflammatory response in primary microglia upon lipopolysaccharide challenge. We further identified CXCR5 as the direct target of miR-214- 5p in this setting.Conclusion:Overexpression of miR-214-5p in GBM modulated the inflammatory response in microglia via exosomal transfer.

scholarly journals Methionine Diet Evoked Hyperhomocysteinemia Causes Hippocampal Alterations, Metabolomics Plasma Changes and Behavioral Pattern in Wild Type Rats

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. 4961
Author(s):  
Maria Kovalska ◽  
Eva Baranovicova ◽  
Dagmar Kalenska ◽  
Anna Tomascova ◽  
Marian Adamkov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Changes ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Cerebrovascular Diseases ◽  
Behavioral Pattern ◽  
Cell Physiology ◽  
Male Wistar Rats ◽  
High Level ◽  
Hippocampal Alterations ◽  
The Impact

L-methionine, an essential amino acid, plays a critical role in cell physiology. High intake and/or dysregulation in methionine (Met) metabolism results in accumulation of its intermediate(s) or breakdown products in plasma, including homocysteine (Hcy). High level of Hcy in plasma, hyperhomocysteinemia (hHcy), is considered to be an independent risk factor for cerebrovascular diseases, stroke and dementias. To evoke a mild hHcy in adult male Wistar rats we used an enriched Met diet at a dose of 2 g/kg of animal weight/day in duration of 4 weeks. The study contributes to the exploration of the impact of Met enriched diet inducing mild hHcy on nervous tissue by detecting the histo-morphological, metabolomic and behavioural alterations. We found an altered plasma metabolomic profile, modified spatial and learning memory acquisition as well as remarkable histo-morphological changes such as a decrease in neurons’ vitality, alterations in the morphology of neurons in the selective vulnerable hippocampal CA 1 area of animals treated with Met enriched diet. Results of these approaches suggest that the mild hHcy alters plasma metabolome and behavioural and histo-morphological patterns in rats, likely due to the potential Met induced changes in “methylation index” of hippocampal brain area, which eventually aggravates the noxious effect of high methionine intake.

scholarly journals Emotional Impact of Dishes versus Wines on Restaurant Diners: From Haute Cuisine Open Innovation

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Ana Mengual-Recuerda ◽  
Victoria Tur-Viñes ◽  
David Juárez-Varón ◽  
Faustino Alarcón-Valero
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Open Innovation ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Fundamental Importance ◽  
Emotional Impact ◽  
The World ◽  
Unique Experience ◽  
General Experience ◽  
High Level

Haute cuisine is emblematic in the world of tourism and is of fundamental importance in the economic and social life in most countries worldwide. Haute cuisine gastronomic experiences play with the senses, involving the diner, thus generating a unique experience for the customer. This empirical study aims to analyze the influence on the consumer of the characteristic stimuli of a high-level gastronomic experience in a restaurant with two Michelin stars. Using neuromarketing biometrics, combined with a qualitative research technique, the objective of this research was to determine the emotional impact of the presentation and tasting of dishes compared to wines and to draw conclusions about each variable in the general experience. The results indicate that the dishes have a greater influence on the level of interest than the wines, and both have a different emotional impact at different moments of the experience due to its duration.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document