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.

Interactions between Voluntary and Stimulus-driven Spatial Attention Mechanisms across Sensory Modalities

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 2384-2397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerio Santangelo ◽  
Marta Olivetti Belardinelli ◽  
Charles Spence ◽  
Emiliano Macaluso
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Auditory Stimulus ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Visual Target ◽  
Exogenous Attention ◽  
Physiological Basis ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Visual Targets ◽  
Task Irrelevant

In everyday life, the allocation of spatial attention typically entails the interplay between voluntary (endogenous) and stimulus-driven (exogenous) attention. Furthermore, stimuli in different sensory modalities can jointly influence the direction of spatial attention, due to the existence of cross-sensory links in attentional control. Using fMRI, we examined the physiological basis of these interactions. We induced exogenous shifts of auditory spatial attention while participants engaged in an endogenous visuospatial cueing task. Participants discriminated visual targets in the left or right hemifield. A central visual cue preceded the visual targets, predicting the target location on 75% of the trials (endogenous visual attention). In the interval between the endogenous cue and the visual target, task-irrelevant nonpredictive auditory stimuli were briefly presented either in the left or right hemifield (exogenous auditory attention). Consistent with previous unisensory visual studies, activation of the ventral fronto-parietal attentional network was observed when the visual targets were presented at the uncued side (endogenous invalid trials, requiring visuospatial reorienting), as compared with validly cued targets. Critically, we found that the side of the task-irrelevant auditory stimulus modulated these activations, reducing spatial reorienting effects when the auditory stimulus was presented on the same side as the upcoming (invalid) visual target. These results demonstrate that multisensory mechanisms of attentional control can integrate endogenous and exogenous spatial information, jointly determining attentional orienting toward the most relevant spatial location.

scholarly journals Ignoring Irrelevant Information: Enhanced Intermodal Attention in Synaesthetes

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (3-5) ◽  
pp. 253-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Mas-Casadesús ◽  
Elena Gherri
Keyword(s):  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Daily Activities ◽  
Perceptual Information ◽  
Conflicting Information ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Irrelevant Distractors ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Despite the fact that synaesthetes experience additional percepts during their inducer-concurrent associations that are often unrelated or irrelevant to their daily activities, they appear to be relatively unaffected by this potentially distracting information. This might suggest that synaesthetes are particularly good at ignoring irrelevant perceptual information coming from different sensory modalities. To investigate this hypothesis, the performance of a group of synaesthetes was compared to that of a matched non-synaesthete group in two different conflict tasks aimed at assessing participants’ abilities to ignore irrelevant information. In order to match the sensory modality of the task-irrelevant distractors (vision) with participants’ synaesthetic attentional filtering experience, we tested only synaesthetes experiencing at least one synaesthesia subtype triggering visual concurrents (e.g., grapheme–colour synaesthesia or sequence–space synaesthesia). Synaesthetes and controls performed a classic flanker task (FT) and a visuo-tactile cross-modal congruency task (CCT) in which they had to attend to tactile targets while ignoring visual distractors. While no differences were observed between synaesthetes and controls in the FT, synaesthetes showed reduced interference by the irrelevant distractors of the CCT. These findings provide the first direct evidence that synaesthetes might be more efficient than non-synaesthetes at dissociating conflicting information from different sensory modalities when the irrelevant modality correlates with their synaesthetic concurrent modality (here vision).

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.

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 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.

Responses to Task-Irrelevant Visual Features by Primate Prefrontal Neurons

2001 ◽  
Vol 86 (4) ◽  
pp. 2001-2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Lauwereyns ◽  
Masamichi Sakagami ◽  
Ken-Ichiro Tsutsui ◽  
Shunsuke Kobayashi ◽  
Masashi Koizumi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Target ◽  
Color Discrimination ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Visual Features ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Motion Direction ◽  
Color Feature ◽  
Motion Feature ◽  
Irrelevant Feature ◽  
Task Irrelevant

The primate brain is equipped with prefrontal circuits for interpreting visual information, but how these circuits deal with competing stimulus-response (S-R) associations remains unknown. Here we show different types of responses to task-irrelevant visual features in three functionally dissociated groups of primate prefrontal neurons. Two Japanese macaques participated in a go/no-go task in which they had to discriminate either the color or the motion direction of a visual target to make a correct manual response. Prior to the experiment, the monkeys had been trained extensively so that they acquired fixed associations between visual features and required responses (e.g., “green = go”; “downward motion = no-go”). In this design, the monkey was confronted with a visual target from which it had to extract relevant information (e.g., color in the color-discrimination condition) while ignoring irrelevant information (e.g., motion direction in the color-discrimination condition). We recorded from 436 task-related prefrontal neurons while the monkey performed the multidimensional go/no-go task: 139 (32%) neurons showed go/no-go discrimination based on color as well as motion direction (“integration cells”); 192 neurons (44%) showed go/no-go discrimination only based on color (“color-feature cells”); and 105 neurons (24%) showed go/no-go discrimination only based on motion direction (“motion-feature cells”). Overall, however, 162 neurons (37%) were influenced by irrelevant information: 53 neurons (38%) among integration cells, 71 neurons (37%) among color-feature cells, and 38 neurons (36%) among motion-feature cells. Across all types of neurons, the response to an irrelevant feature was positively correlated with the response to the same feature when it was relevant, indicating that the influence from irrelevant information is a residual from S-R associations that are relevant in a different context. Temporal and anatomical differences among integration, color-feature and motion-feature cells suggested a sequential mode of information processing in prefrontal cortex, with integration cells situated toward the output of the decision-making process. In these cells, the response to irrelevant information appears as a congruency effect, with better go/no-go discrimination when both the relevant and irrelevant feature are associated with the same response than when they are associated with different responses. This congruency effect could be the result of the combined input from color- and motion-feature cells. Thus these data suggest that irrelevant features lead to partial activation of neurons even toward the output of the decision-making process in primate prefrontal cortex.

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.

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