Reliable evidence for implicit attentional responses to aversive conditioned stimuli

Literature on implicit Pavlovian conditioning has generated a long-standing debate, and evidence for implicit aversive learning effects has often been criticized for its lack of experimental rigor and statistical reliability. We set out to investigate whether attentional emotional responses to aversive conditioned stimuli can occur implicitly.Across two experiments, participants completed an aversive conditioning task in which abstract geometrical shapes were conditioned with high or low probabilities of hearing an aversive white noise. A novel Bayesian awareness categorization tool was applied to obtain evidence for participants who lacked stimulus-outcome contingency awareness. Then, conditioned stimuli were presented in an emotional attentional blink (Exp.1, n=40; n=21 unaware) and a modified flanker task (Exp.2, n=86; n= 69 unaware) to measure attentional conditioned effects. Finally, participants rated the subjective valence and arousal caused by the conditioned stimuli. We found that, for participants unaware of contingencies, conditioned stimuli associated with high probabilities of aversive noise were harder to detect in the emotional attentional blink; while on the flanker task they generated more attentional interference. Regarding the development of subjective responses, only aware participants showed learning effects. For both experiments, the awareness categorization did not lead to regression-to-the-mean effects, revealing a reliable determination of awareness states. These findings provide strong evidence for the existence of implicit aversive learning as demonstrated via conditioned attentional responses, and build an analytical framework that can be extrapolated to other implicit paradigms.

Effects of motifs in music therapy on the attention of children with externalizing behavior problems

Recent studies highlight the role of attention (i.e., executive attention and joint attention) in the negative association between children’s externalizing behavior problems (EBPs) and self-regulation. In music therapy improvisation, “Motifs” represent a repeated and meaningful use of freely improvised or structured music. They have been reported to be effective in drawing attention toward joint musical engagement. This study aimed to examine the effects of clinically derived motifs on the attention of a child with EBPs. Video microanalysis of four therapy sessions was employed. Interaction segments with/without motifs were then selected for analysis: (a) Executive attention measurement: a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to examine the effects of Motifs (Factor I) across sessions (Factor II) on the duration of interaction segments. (b) Joint attention measurement: another two-way ANOVA investigated the effects of these two factors on the duration of joint attentive responses in each segment. Results showed that (a) the segments with Motifs tended to decrease in duration throughout the sessions, while (b) these segments showed a significant increase in proportions of joint attentional responses. These findings suggest a positive effect of Motifs on enhancing efficiency of joint attention execution over time, indicating the child’s recognition of the Motifs through learning.

Evaluation of the role of the colour tent in vision stimulation for children with complex disabilities and cerebral visual impairment: A feasibility study

Children with profound and multiple disabilities commonly have their visual impairment overlooked when seeking to meet their complex health needs. The act of surrounding a child with little or no apparent visual function by a monochromatic translucent tent can serve to ‘switch on’ a child’s visual system. The aim of the project was to investigate the role of using colour tents to bring about attentional responses in children with complex disabilities including cerebral visual impairment. The evaluation comprises three phases, repeated on four occasions over the space of 4 weeks. The child’s visual attention prior to entering the tent and during the 5 minutes after leaving the tent was recorded. Moreover, the child’s responses and behaviours while in the tent were recorded. Nine children participated in the evaluation, mean age 6 years (range: 5–9 years). All children showed a change in visual behaviour on at least one occasion while in the colour tent. Most children required more than one session before a change in visual behaviour was noted. Only two children showed increase in visual awareness after any session, and there was no sustained effect demonstrated. This feasibility study has demonstrated that a short series of sessions in a colour tent is insufficient to demonstrate the effectiveness of a colour tent in stimulating visual awareness in children with complex needs. The methodology was acceptable to parents and teachers and lessons have been learned which will inform future studies.

Brand as a cognitive mediator: investigating the effect of media brands as a structural feature of textual news messages

PurposeThis study investigates how media brand knowledge, defined as a structural feature of the message, influences emotional and attentional responses to, and memory of, news messages.Design/methodology/approachSelf-reports, facial electromyography (EMG) and electroencephalography were used as indices of emotional valence, arousal and attention in response to 42 news messages, which varied along the valence and involvement dimensions and were framed with different media brands varying along the familiarity and credibility dimensions.FindingsCompared to the no-brand condition, news framed with brands elicited more attention. The memory tests indicated that strong media brands override the effect of involvement in information encoding, whereas details of news presented with Facebook were not well encoded. However, the headlines of news framed with Facebook were well retrieved. In addition, negative and high-involvement news elicited higher arousal ratings and corrugator EMG activity. News framed with familiar and high-credibility brands elicited higher arousal ratings.Research limitations/implicationsRelevant for both brand managers and audiences, the findings show that building credibility and familiarity both work as brand attributes to differentiate media brands and influence information processing.Originality/valueThe results highlight the importance of media brands in news reading: as a structural feature, the brand is used as a proxy to process the message content. The study contributes by investigating how the type of source influences the reception and encoding of the mediated information; by investigating the emotional effects of brands; and by confirming previous findings in media psychology literature.