The role of transient attention in crowding and feature binding

Crowding refers to the failure to identify a peripheral object due to nearby objects (flankers). A hallmark of crowding is the inner-outer asymmetry, i.e., the outer flanker (more peripheral) produces stronger interference than the inner one. Here, by manipulating attention, we tested the predictions of two competing accounts: the attentional account, which predicts a positive attentional effect on the asymmetry (i.e., attention to the outer flanker will increase the asymmetry), and the receptive field size account, which predicts a negative attentional effect. In Experiment 1, observers estimated a Gabor target orientation. A peripheral pre-cue draws attention to one of three locations: target, inner or outer flanker. Probabilistic mixture modeling demonstrated the asymmetry by showing that observers often misreported the outer flanker orientation as the target. Interestingly, the outer cue led to a higher misreport rate of the outer flanker, and the inner cue led to a lower misreport rate of the outer flanker. Experiment 2 tested the effect of asymmetry and attention on binding errors (e.g., reporting the tilt of one presented item with the color of another item). Observers reported both the tilt and color of the target. Attention increased target reports in both dimensions and led to a decrease in target binding. However, attention did not lead to a decrease in flanker biding errors. The results are consistent with the attentional account of crowding and suggest that the locus of spatial attention plays an essential role in crowding and the inner-outer asymmetry.

Improving learning and writing outcomes: Influence of cognitive and behavioral group awareness tools in wikis

Group awareness (GA) tools can facilitate learning processes and outcomes by visualizing different social attributes, such as cognitive and behavioral information about group members. To assist learning and writing in social media, combining various types of awareness information may foster learning processes due to challenges, which are difficult to address by one type of GA information alone. The systematic investigation of GA tool combinations is largely unexplored with GA information often being examined separately or intermixed. To reveal both positive and negative (interaction) effects of providing different types of GA information, we conducted a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment with N = 158 participants. Learners were provided with a wiki learning environment and, except for the control condition, different types of GA tools involving cognitive (knowledge bars) and/or behavioral (participation bars) GA information. GA tool effects were considered at wiki selection, discussion, and article levels. Eye-tracking was used for investigating the attentional effect of the GA visualizations. The results show that both types of GA information have effects on individuals’ selection preference, more strongly with the goal to learn new content than to support other wiki collaborators, which were introduced as within goal scenarios. Also, participants provided with behavioral GA support were more engaged in wiki contributions. However, only the combination of cognitive and behavioral GA information, rather than their separate visualization, had a positive effect on resulting article quality. This highlights the need for a holistic perspective when developing GA tools to improve wiki processes and outcomes.

Top–Down Attentional Modulation in Human Frontal Cortex: Differential Engagement during External and Internal Attention

Decades of electrophysiological research on top–down control converge on the role of the lateral frontal cortex in facilitating attention to behaviorally relevant external inputs. However, the involvement of frontal cortex in the top–down control of attention directed to the external versus internal environment remains poorly understood. To address this, we recorded intracranial electrocorticography while subjects directed their attention externally to tones and responded to infrequent target tones, or internally to their own thoughts while ignoring the tones. Our analyses focused on frontal and temporal cortices. We first computed the target effect, as indexed by the difference in high frequency activity (70–150 Hz) between target and standard tones. Importantly, we then compared the target effect between external and internal attention, reflecting a top–down attentional effect elicited by task demands, in each region of interest. Both frontal and temporal cortices showed target effects during external and internal attention, suggesting this effect is present irrespective of attention states. However, only the frontal cortex showed an enhanced target effect during external relative to internal attention. These findings provide electrophysiological evidence for top–down attentional modulation in the lateral frontal cortex, revealing preferential engagement with external attention.

A multiple-response frequency-tagging paradigm measures graded changes in consciousness during perceptual filling-in

Perceptual filling-in (PFI) occurs when a physically present visual target disappears from conscious perception, with its location filled-in by the surrounding visual background. These perceptual changes are complete, near instantaneous, and can occur for multiple separate locations simultaneously. Here, we show that contrasting neural activity during the presence or absence of multi-target PFI can complement other findings from multistable phenomena to reveal the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC). We presented four peripheral targets over a background dynamically updating at 20 Hz. While participants reported on target disappearances/reappearances via button press/release, we tracked neural activity entrained by the background during PFI using steady-state visually evoked potentials (SSVEPs) recorded in the electroencephalogram. We found background SSVEPs closely correlated with subjective report, and increased with an increasing amount of PFI. Unexpectedly, we found that as the number of filled-in targets increased, the duration of target disappearances also increased, suggesting that facilitatory interactions exist between targets in separate visual quadrants. We also found distinct spatiotemporal correlates for the background SSVEP harmonics. Prior to genuine PFI, the response at the second harmonic (40 Hz) increased before the first (20 Hz), which we tentatively link to an attentional effect, while no such difference between harmonics was observed for physically removed stimuli. These results demonstrate that PFI can be used to study multi-object perceptual suppression when frequency-tagging the background of a visual display, and because there are distinct neural correlates for endogenously and exogenously induced changes in consciousness, that it is ideally suited to study the NCC.

Heritability of reflexive social attention triggered by eye gaze and walking direction: common and unique genetic underpinnings

BackgroundSocial attention ability is crucial for human adaptive social behaviors and interpersonal communications, and the malfunction of which has been implicated in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a highly genetic neurodevelopmental disorder marked by striking social deficits.MethodsUsing a classical twin design, the current study investigated the genetic contribution to individual variation in social and non-social attention abilities, and further probed their potential genetic linkage. Moreover, individual autistic traits were further measured in an independent group of non-twin participants to examine the hypothetical link between the core social attention ability and ASD.ResultsWe found reliable genetic influences on the social attentional effects induced by two distinct cues (eye gaze and walking direction), with 91% of their covariance accounted for by common genetic effects. However, no evidence of heritability or shared genetic effects was observed for the attentional effect directed by a non-social cue (i.e. arrow direction) and its correlation with the social attention ability. Remarkably, one's autistic traits could well predict his/her heritable core social attention ability extracted from the conventional social attentional effect.ConclusionsThese findings together suggest that human social attention ability is supported by unique genetic mechanisms that can be shared across different social, but not non-social, processing. Moreover, they also encourage the identification of ‘social attention genes’ and highlight the critical role of the core human social attention ability in seeking the endophenotypes of social cognitive disorders including ASD.

Temporal dynamics of endogenous attentional modulation without cue awareness

ABSTRACTInvisible visual stimuli can regulate our broad cognitive performance in the pursuit of current goals. Endogenous spatial attention is an important modulator of cognitive performance, and it can be triggered by unconscious cues. However, how its effect changes with time remains unclear. Here, we show that endogenous attention was triggered by an arrow-cue whose direction participants reported being unaware of but which affected the task performance in a time-dependent manner. Participants were asked to remember the directions of eight Landolt c rings (target memory array) after arrow-cue presentation, which was designed to orient their attention to a certain c ring. Then, we applied a delay, ranging from 83 ms to 1000 ms, between the arrow-cue and the target memory array presentation (the possible delays were equally spaced on a logarithmic scale). The attentional effect was greater for the 83, 183, 250 and 333 ms delays than the other six possible delays. In contrast, its effect was maintained irrespective of the delay when the participants reported being aware of the cue direction. Thus, awareness of arrow-cue direction was necessary to maintain endogenous attentional modulation, and its modulation without arrow-cue direction awareness was limited in a time-dependent manner.

Predicting the Attentional Effect of Sport Sponsorship Information as an Innovative Evaluation Approach

Most major sports events can no longer exist without the investments of sponsors. However, financially strong companies are increasingly adopting a critical attitude towards sponsorship since their strategic investments in a sports event cannot be evaluated sufficiently. Against this backdrop, the current approaches to the evaluation of sponsorship are discussed critically in this chapter before a more innovative approach is suggested. The new evaluation approach directs sports viewers' attention to sponsorship information, the central valuation object. At the core, it involves measuring the visual and cognitive attention in standardized experiments and using the identified patterns to predict sponsorship effectiveness. In this regard, the theoretical and methodological fundamentals of the new approach are introduced in the main part of the chapter before their applicability is illustrated based on three typical phases in sponsorship management. To close this chapter, the authors suggest topics for future research.