A dissociation between the effects of expectations and attention in selective visual processing.

It is often claimed that probabilistic expectations affect visual perception directly, without mediation by selective attention. However, these claims have been disputed, as effects of expectation and attention are notoriously hard to dissociate experimentally. In this study, we used a new approach to separate expectations from attention. In four experiments (N = 60), participants searched for a target in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream and had to identify a digit or a letter defined by a low-level cue (colour or shape). Expectations about the target's alphanumeric category were probabilistically manipulated. Since category membership is a high-level feature and since the target was embedded among many distractors that shared its category, targets from the expected category should not attract attention more than targets from the unexpected category. In the first experiment, these targets were more likely to be identified relative to targets from the unexpected category. Importantly, in the following experiments, we also included behavioural and electrophysiological indices of attentional guidance and engagement. This allowed us to examine whether expectations also modulated these or earlier attentional processes. Results showed that category-based expectations had no modulatory effects on attention, and only affected processing at later encoding-related stages. Alternative interpretation of expectation effects in terms of repetition priming or response bias were also ruled out. These observations provide new evidence for direct attention-independent expectation effects on perception. We suggest that expectations can adjust the threshold required for encoding expectations-congruent information, thereby affecting the speed with which target objects are encoded in working memory.

Transient Attention Gates Access Consciousness: Coupling N2pc and P3 Latencies Using Dynamic Time Warping.

The N2pc and P3 event-related potentials (ERPs), used to index selective attention and access to working memory and conscious awareness, respectively, have been important tools in cognitive sciences. Although it is likely that these two components and the underlying cognitive processes are temporally and functionally linked, such links have not yet been convincingly demonstrated. Adopting a novel methodological approach based on dynamic time warping (DTW), we provide evidence that the N2pc and P3 ERP components are temporally linked. We analyzed data from an experiment where 23 participants (16 women) monitored bilateral rapid serial streams of letters and digits in order to report a target digit indicated by a shape cue, separately for trials with correct responses and trials where a temporally proximal distractor was reported instead (distractor intrusion). DTW analyses revealed that N2pc and P3 latencies were correlated in time, both when the target or a distractor was reported. Notably, this link was weaker on distractor intrusion trials. This N2pc-P3 association is discussed with respect to the relationship between attention and access consciousness. Our results demonstrate that our novel method provides a valuable approach for assessing temporal links between two cognitive processes and their underlying modulating factors. This method allows to establish links and their modulator for any two time-series across all domains of the field (general-purpose MATLAB functions and a Python module are provided alongside this paper).

Attention and feature binding in the temporal domain.

Previous studies have shown that illusory conjunction can emerge for both spatially and temporally proximal objects. However, the mechanisms involved in binding in the temporal domain are not yet fully understood. In the current study, we investigated the role of attentional processes in correct and incorrect temporal binding, and specifically how feature binding is affected by the speed of attentional engagement. In two experiments, participants searched for a target in a rapid serial visual presentation stream and reported its colour and alphanumeric identity. Temporal binding errors were frequent. Critically, when participants reported the identity of a distractor instead of a target, they were also more likely to report the colour of this distractor. This association was observed both within and between individuals. These findings suggest that attentional engagement facilitates the binding of temporally co-occurring features. We discuss these results within a 'diachronic' framework of selective attention, and also consider other factors that contribute to temporal binding errors.

Beliefs About the Inevitability of Sexual Attraction Predict Stereotypes About Asexuality.

Similar to other sexual minorities, asexual individuals often face prejudice and stereotyping. However, the source of these attitudes and beliefs is not well understood. We hypothesized that asexual stereotypes stem from the belief that sexual attraction is an inevitable part of human development. This attraction inevitability assumption can lead to the deduction that people who identify as asexual do so because they are going through a transitory stage or excusing socially avoidant tendencies. To test this stereotype deduction account, we examined whether specific asexual stereotypes (immaturity and non-sociality) were associated with adherence to the attraction inevitability assumption. Heterosexual participants (N = 322; 201 women, 114 men; mean age 34.6 yrs.) from the UK and the US read vignettes describing a target character that was either asexual or heterosexual. People who assumed that attraction is inevitable were more likely to evaluate asexual targets (but not heterosexual targets) as immature and non-social. The impact of the sexual inevitability assumption was present even when social dominance orientation, an attitude closely related to negativity toward all sexual minorities, was accounted for. Participants who adhered to the attraction inevitability assumption also showed a reduced inclination to befriend asexual individuals. These findings suggest that generalized negativity toward sexual minorities does not fully explain stereotypes and prejudice against asexual people. Instead, the current study highlights how perceived deviation from the shared understanding of sexuality uniquely contributes to anti-asexual bias.

Ten simple rules for socially responsible science.

Guidelines concerning the potentially harmful effects of scientific studies have historically focused on ethical considerations for minimizing risk for participants. However, studies can also indirectly inflict harm on individuals and social groups through how they are designed, reported, and disseminated. As evidenced by recent criticisms and retractions of high-profile studies dealing with a wide variety of social issues, there is a scarcity of resources and guidance on how one can conduct research in a socially responsible manner. As such, even motivated researchers might publish work that has negative social impacts due to a lack of awareness. To address this, we propose 10 simple rules for researchers who wish to conduct socially responsible science. These rules, which cover major considerations throughout the life cycle of a study from inception to dissemination, are not aimed as a prescriptive list or a deterministic code of conduct. Rather, they are meant to help motivated scientists to reflect on their social responsibility as researchers and actively engage with the potential social impact of their research.

The temporal dynamics of selective attention are reflected by distractor intrusions.

When observers have to identify an object embedded in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream, they often erroneously report the identity of a distractor instead of the target (distractor intrusion). In two experiments, we examined whether these intrusion errors are associated with the speed of attentional engagement. Participants reported the identity of target digits indicated by shape selection cues. To manipulate the speed of engagement, targets appeared either within a single RSVP stream or unpredictably in one of two streams. Objects that followed the selection cue were reported more frequently when engagement was delayed (two streams), whereas the probability of reporting objects preceding the cue was higher when engagement was faster (single stream). These results show that distractor intrusions are closely linked to the allocation of selective attention in time, making the intrusion paradigm a useful tool for research into the temporal dynamics of attention. They also provide new evidence for the idea that attentional selectivity operates within brief periods of perceptual enhancement (attentional episodes), facilitating the processing of all objects within this period, regardless of their status as targets or distractors.

Categorization templates modulate selective attention.

Many models of attention assume that categorization (the individuation of events based on the feature dimension relevant for response selection) occurs only after an object has been selected and encoded in working memory (WM). In contrast, we propose that the match between an item and the currently activated set of possible response features (categorization template) already modulates selective perceptual processing prior to WM encoding. To test this proposal, we measured electrophysiological markers of attentional engagement (N2pc components) and behavioral interference effects from posttarget distractors (PTDs) as a function of whether these distractors matched the categorization template. Participants were presented with rapid serial visual presentations (RSVPs) of digits and letters and had to identify a target indicated by a surrounding shape in these RSVP streams. Targets were drawn from a subset of items within an alphanumeric category. Accuracy was highest when the PTD belonged to the irrelevant alphanumeric category, lower when the PTD matched the target's alphanumeric category but not the categorization template, and lowest when the PTD matched the categorization template. On trials with template-matching PTDs, target-elicited N2pc components were temporally extended, indicative of additional attentional amplification triggered by these PTDs. We propose that this amplification produces increased competition between targets and PTDs, resulting in performance costs. These results provide new evidence for the continuous nature of evidence accumulation and attentional modulations during perceptual processing. They show that attentional selectivity is not exclusively mediated by search templates, but that categorization templates also play an important and often overlooked role. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Expectation-based blindness: Predictions about object categories gate awareness of focally attended objects.

Selective attention gates access to conscious awareness, resulting in surprising failures to notice clearly visible but unattended objects ('inattentional blindness'). Here, we demonstrate that expectations can have a similar effect, even for fully attended objects ('expectation-based blindness'). In three experiments, participants (N = 613) were presented with rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) streams at fixation and had to identify a target object indicated by a cue. Target category was repeated for the first 19 trials but unexpectedly changed on trial 20. The probability of correct target reports on this surprise trial was substantially lower than on preceding and subsequent trials. This impairment was present for switches between target letters and digits, and also for changes between human and animal face images. In contrast, no drop in accuracy was observed for novel target objects from the same category as previous targets. These results demonstrate that predictions about object categories affect visual awareness. Objects that are task relevant and focally attended often fail to get noticed when their category changes unexpectedly.

What processes are disrupted during the attentional blink? An integrative review of event-related potential research.

Reporting the second of two targets is impaired when these appear in close succession, a phenomenon known as the attentional blink (AB). Despite decades of research, what factors limit our ability to process multiple sequentially presented events remains unclear. Specifically, two central issues remain open: does failure to report the second target (T2) reflect a structural limitation in working memory (WM) encoding or a disruption to attentional processes? And is perceptual processing of the stimulus that we fail to report impaired, or only processes that occur after this stimulus is identified? We address these questions by reviewing event-related potential (ERP) studies of the AB, after providing a brief overview of the theoretical landscape relevant to these debates and clarifying key concepts essential for interpreting ERP studies. We show that failure to report the second target is most often associated with disrupted attentional engagement (associated with a smaller and delayed N2pc component). This disruption occurs after early processing of T2 (associated with an intact P1 component), weakens its semantic processing (typically associated with a smaller N400 component), and prevents its encoding into WM (associated with absent P3b). However, failure to encode T2 in WM can occur despite intact attentional engagement and semantic processing. We conclude that the AB phenomenon, which reflects our limited ability to process sequential events, emerges from the disruption of both attentional engagement and WM encoding.

The diachronic account of attentional selectivity.

Many models of attention assume that attentional selection takes place at a specific moment in time that demarcates the critical transition from pre-attentive to attentive processing of sensory input. We argue that this intuitively appealing standard account of attentional selectivity is not only inaccurate, but has led to substantial conceptual confusion. As an alternative, we offer a 'diachronic' framework that describes attentional selectivity as a process that unfolds over time. Key to this view is the concept of attentional episodes, brief periods of intense attentional amplification of sensory representations that regulate access to working memory and response-related processes. We describe how attentional episodes are linked to earlier attentional mechanisms and to recurrent processing at the neural level. We review studies that establish the existence of attentional episodes, delineate the factors that determine if and when they are triggered, and discuss the costs associated with processing multiple events within a single episode. Finally, we argue that this framework offers new solutions to old problems in attention research that have never been resolved. It can provide a unified and conceptually coherent account of the network of cognitive and neural processes that produce the goal-directed selectivity in perceptual processing that is commonly referred to as 'attention'.

The number of expected targets modulates access to working memory: A new unified account of lag-1 sparing and distractor intrusions.

In rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) tasks, failures of attentional selectivity are frequently observed when a single target is followed by a potentially reportable distractor (distractor intrusions). However, in tasks with two targets, accuracy for both targets is typically high when they are presented in immediate succession (lag-1 sparing). To account for this apparent contradiction, we tested whether expectations about the number of targets affects the number of items encoded in working memory (WM). Colored target digits were embedded among gray letters and digits. The first target was followed either by a gray digit, or a second target (another colored digit). To manipulate expectations, the ratio of one-target and two-targets trials (75% to 25% or vice versa) was varied between blocks. Participants were much more likely to report seeing two targets when two targets were expected. Analogous results were obtained in an additional experiment where two successive colored digits appeared on all trials, and participants were instructed to either report both or only the first digit. ERP markers of attentional allocation (N2pc) and WM storage processes (contralateral delayed activity, CDA) were larger when two targets were expected, regardless of the actual number of targets. These results show that the number of expected targets modulates the activation of sensory representations during attentional episodes, which affects the probability that they are subsequently encoded in WM. These findings suggest that a single mechanism can account both for lag-1 sparing and distractor intrusions in RSVP tasks. They also provide new evidence for strategic top-down control over WM encoding. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Distractor intrusions are the result of delayed attentional engagement: A new temporal variability account of attentional selectivity in dynamic visual tasks.

When observers must identify targets among distractors in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream, distractor intrusion errors are frequent, demonstrating the difficulty of allocating attention to the right object at the right moment in time. However, the mechanisms responsible for such intrusion errors remain disputed. We propose a new attentional engagement account of selective visual processing in RSVP tasks. Engagement is triggered by the preattentive detection of target-defining features. Critically, the success versus failure of target identification is determined by the speed of such engagement processes on individual trials. To test this account, we measured electrophysiological markers of attentional engagement (N2pc components) in 3 experiments where observers had to report the identity of a target digit in 1 of 2 lateral RSVP streams. On most trials, the target was immediately followed by a digit distractor, resulting in many posttarget distractor intrusions. Critically, N2pcs components measured on distractor intrusion trials were significantly delayed relative to trials with correct target reports. This was the case regardless of whether the target was defined by a shape cue or by its color and even when the location of shape-defined targets was known in advance. These findings show that distractor intrusions are the result of delayed attentional engagement. They demonstrate that temporal variability in attentional selectivity across trials can strongly affect visual awareness and perceptual reports. Our temporal variability account of attentional engagement offers a new framework for assessing the temporal dynamics of attention in visual object recognition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceptual competition between targets and distractors determines working memory access and produces intrusion errors in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) tasks.

When a target and a distractor that share the same response dimension appear in rapid succession, participants often erroneously report the distractor instead of the target. Using behavioral and electrophysiological measures, we examined whether these intrusion errors occur because the target is often not encoded in working memory (WM) or are generated at later postencoding stages. In 4 experiments, participants either provided two guesses about the target's identity, or had to select the target among items that did not include the potential intruder. Results showed that the target did not gain access to WM on a substantial number of trials where the distractor was encoded. This was also confirmed with an electrophysiological marker of WM storage (CDA component). These findings are inconsistent with postencoding accounts of distractor intrusions, which postulate that competitive interactions within WM impair awareness of the target, the precision of target representations, or result in the target being dropped from WM. They show instead that target-distractor competition already operates at earlier perceptual stages, and reduces the likelihood that the target gains access to WM. We provide a theoretical framework to explain these findings and how they challenge contemporary models of temporal attention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Cognitive processes in aging effects on attentional alerting.

Alerting, the process of achieving and maintaining a state of optimal vigilance, is crucial for detecting relevant stimuli and task performance. Age-related decline in the ability to use alerting cues is widely reported and attributed to changes in noradrenergic signaling. However, it remains to be determined whether aging affects all forms of alerting cues equally and whether older adults differently modulate their alerting sensitivity based on differences in cue predictivity relevant to the target task. We examined the performance of 135 younger adults and 103 older adults on three versions of the Attention Networks Test, using locational but spatially nonpredictive visual cues, locational spatially predictive visual cues, and spatially predictive auditory cues. Analysis of alerting effects indicated that while older adults derived less benefit from visual alerting cues than younger adults, they used auditory alerting cues equally well. Furthermore, cue spatial predictivity did not impact on aging effects on alerting. This heterogeneity in aging effects on alerting may indicate that they result primarily from cognitive rather than neuromodulatory changes.

Predictivity and Manifestation Factors in Aging Effects on the Orienting of Spatial Attention.

OBJECTIVE: Prior attention research has asserted that endogenous orienting of spatial attention by willful focusing may be differently influenced by aging than exogenous orienting, the capture of attention by external cues. However, most such studies confound factors of manifestation (locational vs symbolic cues) and the predictivity of cues. We therefore investigated whether age effects on orienting are mediated by those factors. METHOD: We measured accuracy and response times of groups of younger and older adults in a discrimination task with flanker distracters, under three spatial cueing conditions: nonpredictive locational cues, predictive symbolic cues, and a hybrid predictive locational condition. RESULTS: Age differences were found to be related to the factor of cue predictivity, but not to the factor of spatial manifestation. These differences were not modulated by flanker congruency. DISCUSSION: The results indicate that the orienting of spatial attention in healthy aging may be adversely affected by less effective perception or utilization of the predictive value of cues, but not by the requirement to voluntarily execute a shift of attention.

Multifactorial effects of aging on the orienting of visual attention.

Differential sensitivity of brain areas to the effects of healthy aging may lead to multifactorial influences on the orienting of spatial attention. We examined how aging affects two key aspects of orienting: the benefits of orienting to valid spatial cues vs. the costs of re-orienting following invalid cues, and the impact on orienting of prior cue validity, in the context of different degrees of cue predictivity and types of cue manifestation. We analyzed accuracy and response time data from the performance of 103 older adults and 135 younger adults in three versions of the Attention Networks Test. Participants engaged in target discrimination following either locational cues that were generally non-predictive, locational cues that were generally predictive, or symbolic cues that were generally predictive. We found that healthy older adults did not exhibit greater re-orienting response time costs than younger adults across all cueing types, nor did they differ in the orienting benefits provided by predictive locational cues. However, older adults derived greater benefit from valid cues in a generally non-predictive cueing context, and lesser benefit from valid cues in a symbolic predictive cueing context. Additionally, aging had no impact on the effects of prior trial validity on subsequent trial validity benefits. A comprehensive appreciation of the effects of aging on attention may be informed by these distinctions.