1,721,278 research outputs found
MICROSACCADIC RESPONSE DURING INHIBITION OF RETURN IN A TARGET-TARGET PARADIGM
No full textThis study examined the relationship between inhibition of return (IOR) in covert orienting and microsaccade statistics. Unlike a
previous study [Galfano, G., Betta, E., & Turatto, M. (2004)], IOR was assessed by means of a target–target paradigm, and microsaccade
dynamics were monitored as a function of both the Wrst and the second visual event. In line with what has been reported with a
cue-target paradigm, a signiWcant directional modulation was observed opposite to the Wrst visual event. Because participants
were to respond to any stimulus, this rules out the possibility that the modulation resulted from a generic motor inhibition,
showing instead that it is peculiarly coupled to the oculomotor system. Importantly, after the second visual event, a diVerent
response was observed in microsaccade orientation, whose direction critically depended of whether the second visual event
appeared at the same location as the Wrst visual event. The results are consistent with the notion that IOR is composed of both attentional
and oculomotor components, and challenge the view that covert orienting paradigms engage the attentional component in
isolation
Learning to resist distraction by spatially predictable luminance transients and color singletons: same or different mechanisms?
No full textStimuli that appear abruptly in the visual field or differ from the surrounding stimuli based on a given visual feature can capture attention and interfere with the visual search process if they are not targets. When both types of distractors appear with higher likelihood at a given location, observers can learn to reduce their impact (distractor-location effect). In the case of feature-singleton distractors, this can imply a cost for processing targets that appear at locations associated with a high distractor probability (target-location effect). This has been proposed as evidence that distractor interference originates in the competition between distractors and targets within an attentional map, whose inputs can be modified by experience. In this study, we conduct a series of experiments that confirmed previous finding related to feature-singleton distractors, but consistently showed that learning to predict the spatial occurrence of luminance transients induces a distractor-location effect in the absence of a target-location effect. Combining this finding with the fact that interference by luminance transients were larger when distractors were far from the target position, we suggest that different mechanisms are responsible for the reduction of distractor interference in the case of color singletons and luminance transients
Habituation of mating preferences: a comment on Daniel, Koffinas and Hughes (2019)
No full textDaniel, Koffinas and Hughes [1] (hereafter DKH) reported that the mating preferences
of female Trinidadian guppy (a tropical fish) are subject to habituation,
a behavioural phenomenon reflecting a widespread form of ancestral learning
in the animal kingdom [2,3]. The authors found that when a female was repeatedly
exposed to a male with a given colour pattern, the female mating interest
for males with a similar pattern decreased as a function of the number of
exposures. DKH also showed that this response decrement presents several features
of habituation, such as stimulus specificity (the mating response recovers
for a male with a different colour pattern), spontaneous recovery (the response
recovers if the habituated male is temporarily removed) and dishabituation
(responsiveness to the habituated male recovers after exposure to a novel male).
While the study is certainly of interest, because it shows that habituation can
affect biologically significant stimuli, we regretfully have to note that DKH have
completely overlooked two areas of research whose results are highly relevant
for the question addressed in their study and that can help to understand the
reported findings
INFLUENZA DI COMPONENTI STRATEGICHE E AUTOMATICHE NELLA CATTURA DELL'ATTENZIONE DA PARTE DEL COLORE
No full textLA CATTURA DELL'ATTENZIONE VISIVA
No full textLa cattura dell’attenzione è un fenomeno che consiste in uno o più spostamenti
dell’attenzione causati dalla comparsa di uno stimolo avente un valore unico in
una particolare dimensione (p. es. colore, forma, ecc.) rispetto agli altri elementi presenti
nel campo visivo. In questa rassegna verranno illustrati i principali risultati ottenuti
dagli studi condotti nell’ambito della psicologia cognitiva negli ultimi dieci anni. Particolare
spazio troveranno i modelli ed i contributi teorici sviluppati per spiegare ed
esplorare il funzionamento dell’attenzione visiva in riferimento alla cattura. Infine, presenteremo
una revisione critica riguardante le diverse interpretazioni dei dati empirici
Asymmetrical visual fields distribution of attention in dyslexic children: a neuropsychological study
No full textMicrosaccadic responses in a bimodal oddball task
No full textIn a visual oddball task the presentation of rare targets induces a prolonged microsaccadic inhibition as compared to standards. Here, we replicated this effect also in the auditory modality. In addition, although auditory standards induced a more limited modulation of microsaccadic frequency as compared to visual standards, auditory oddballs induced a prolonged microsaccadic inhibition. With bimodal standard stimuli the microsaccadic response was determined by the attended modality, resembling that produced by attended unimodal stimuli. The present findings support the idea that the microsaccadic response to oddball and standard stimuli is partly driven by cognitive mechanisms common to both the visual and the auditory modality, and that microsaccades can be used as an implicit behavioral measure of ongoing cognitive processes. © 2008 Springer-Verlag
Microsaccadic Response to Visual Events That Are Invisible to the Superior Colliculus
No full textEven when people think their eyes are still, tiny fixational eye movements, called microsaccades, occur at a rate of ∼1 Hz. Whenever a new (and potentially dangerous) event takes place in the visual field, the microsaccadic frequency is at first inhibited and then is followed by a rebound before the frequency returns to baseline. It has been suggested that this inhibition-rebound response is a type of oculomotor reflex mediated by the superior colliculus (SC), a midbrain structure involved in saccade programming. The present study investigated microsaccadic responses to visual events that were invisible to the SC; the authors recorded microsaccadic responses to visual oddballs when the latter were equiluminant with respect to the standard stimuli and when both oddballs and standards were equiluminant with respect to the background. Results showed that microsaccadic responses to oddballs and to standards were virtually identical both when the stimuli were visible to the SC and when they were invisible to it. Although the SC may be the generator of microsaccades, this research suggests that the specific fixational oculomotor activity in response to visual events can be controlled by other brain centers. © 2007 American Psychological Association
Impaired selection of a previously ignored singleton: Evidence for salience map plastic changes
Full text linkSpatial suppression of a salient colour distractor is achievable via statistical learning. Distractor suppression attenuates unwanted capture, but at the same time target selection at the most likely distractor location is impaired. This result corroborates the idea that the distractor salience is attenuated via inhibitory signals applied to the corresponding location in the priority map. What is less clear, however, is whether lingering impairment in target selection when the distractor is removed are due to the proactive strategic maintenance of the suppressive signal at the previous most likely distractor location or result from the fact that suppression has induced plastic changes in the priority map, probably changing input weights. Here, we provide evidence that supports the latter possibility, as we found that impairment in target selection persisted even when the singleton distractor in the training phase became the target of search in a subsequent test phase. This manipulation rules out the possibility that the observed impairments at the previous most likely distractor location were caused by a signal suppression maintained at this location. Rather, the results reveal that the inhibitory signals cause long-lasting changes in the priority map, which affect future computation of the target salience at the same location, and therefore the efficiency of attentional selection
MODULABILITY DOES NOT UNDERMINE THE STIMULUS-DRIVEN NATURE OF ATTENTIONAL CAPTURE
Full text linkIn the following paragraphs, we will argue that although many studies
reviewed by Ruz and Lupiáñez clearly show that a top-down modulation plays
an important role in determining the location to which attention will be
deployed, attentional capture is stimulus-driven in nature. We agree with the
authors' claim that the endogenous component is much more relevant than was
hypothesised by early works in the field, but we will discuss data showing
that, under some critical conditions, it is possible to observe a purely stimulusdriven
attentional deployment, that is attentional capture by an item
characterised as being a salient singleton in a task-irrelevant feature
dimension
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