Electrophysiological Evidence for a Postperceptual Locus of Suppression During the Attentional Blink
01 Dec 1998-Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance (American Psychological Association)-Vol. 24, Iss: 6, pp 1656-1674
TL;DR: Results indicate that the attentional blink reflects an impairment in a postperceptual stage of processing.
Abstract: When an observer detects a target in a rapid stream of visual stimuli, there is a brief period of time during which the detection of subsequent targets is impaired. In this study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from normal adult observers to determine whether this "attentional blink" reflects a suppression of perceptual processes or an impairment in postperceptual processes. No suppression was observed during the attentional blink interval for ERP components corresponding to sensory processing (the P1 and N1 components) or semantic analysis (the N400 component). However, complete suppression was observed for an ERP component that has been hypothesized to reflect the updating of working memory (the P3 component). Results indicate that the attentional blink reflects an impairment in a postperceptual stage of processing.
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TL;DR: A wide variety of data on capacity limits suggesting that the smaller capacity limit in short-term memory tasks is real is brought together and a capacity limit for the focus of attention is proposed.
Abstract: Miller (1956) summarized evidence that people can remember about seven chunks in short-term memory (STM) tasks. How- ever, that number was meant more as a rough estimate and a rhetorical device than as a real capacity limit. Others have since suggested that there is a more precise capacity limit, but that it is only three to five chunks. The present target article brings together a wide vari- ety of data on capacity limits suggesting that the smaller capacity limit is real. Capacity limits will be useful in analyses of information processing only if the boundary conditions for observing them can be carefully described. Four basic conditions in which chunks can be identified and capacity limits can accordingly be observed are: (1) when information overload limits chunks to individual stimulus items, (2) when other steps are taken specifically to block the recoding of stimulus items into larger chunks, (3) in performance discontinuities caused by the capacity limit, and (4) in various indirect effects of the capacity limit. Under these conditions, rehearsal and long-term memory cannot be used to combine stimulus items into chunks of an unknown size; nor can storage mechanisms that are not capacity- limited, such as sensory memory, allow the capacity-limited storage mechanism to be refilled during recall. A single, central capacity limit averaging about four chunks is implicated along with other, noncapacity-limited sources. The pure STM capacity limit expressed in chunks is distinguished from compound STM limits obtained when the number of separately held chunks is unclear. Reasons why pure capacity estimates fall within a narrow range are discussed and a capacity limit for the focus of attention is proposed.
5,677 citations
Cites result from "Electrophysiological Evidence for a..."
...For example, the approach appears compatible with a model proposed recently by Vogel et al. (1998)....
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TL;DR: The effectiveness of the N400 as a dependent variable for examining almost every aspect of language processing is emphasized and its expanding use to probe semantic memory is highlighted to determine how the neurocognitive system dynamically and flexibly uses bottom-up and top-down information to make sense of the world.
Abstract: We review the discovery, characterization, and evolving use of the N400, an event-related brain potential response linked to meaning processing. We describe the elicitation of N400s by an impressive range of stimulus types—including written, spoken, and signed words or pseudowords; drawings, photos, and videos of faces, objects, and actions; sounds; and mathematical symbols—and outline the sensitivity of N400 amplitude (as its latency is remarkably constant) to linguistic and nonlinguistic manipulations. We emphasize the effectiveness of the N400 as a dependent variable for examining almost every aspect of language processing and highlight its expanding use to probe semantic memory and to determine how the neurocognitive system dynamically and flexibly uses bottom-up and top-down information to make sense of the world. We conclude with different theories of the N400’s functional significance and offer an N400-inspired reconceptualization of how meaning processing might unfold.
3,164 citations
Cites background from "Electrophysiological Evidence for a..."
...…to linguistic and nonlinguistic influences, which often interact; (b) suggest that access to meaning is a natural part of the stimulus-elicited processing stream, not dependent on an information state such as “recognition,” and thus open to all stimuli in all task conditions (unless the…...
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...Critically, when semantically related or unrelated word pairs are embedded in the stimulus stream, N400 effects are observed whether AB: attentional blink T2 is a target (Vogel et al. 1998) or a prime (Rolke et al. 2001) in the critical AB window....
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...Other evidence for the presence of N400 semantic priming effects under conditions of reduced awareness comes from the literature on the attentional blink (AB) phenomenon (reviewed in Vogel et al. 1998)....
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TL;DR: This introductory chapter attempts to clarify the philosophical, empirical, and theoretical bases on which a cognitive neuroscience approach to consciousness can be founded and proposes a theoretical framework that synthesizes those facts: the hypothesis of a global neuronal workspace.
1,940 citations
TL;DR: Converging neuroimaging and neurophysiological data point to objective neural measures of conscious access: late amplification of relevant sensory activity, long-distance cortico-cortical synchronization at beta and gamma frequencies, and "ignition" of a large-scale prefronto-parietal network.
1,736 citations
Cites background from "Electrophysiological Evidence for a..."
...In the 1960s Neuron initial visual processing can be fully preserved on trials in which subjects deny seeing a stimulus (Sergent et al., 2005; Vogel et al., 1998) (see Figure 2)....
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...In such states, initial visual processing, indexed by P1 and N1 waves, can be largely or even entirely unaffected (Sergent et al., 2005; Sigman and Dehaene, 2008; Vogel et al., 1998)....
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...Attentional blink studies also suggest that unseen words may cause surprisingly longlasting ERP components (N400) (see also Gaillard et al., 2007; Vogel et al., 1998)....
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TL;DR: A taxonomy is proposed that distinguishes between vigilance and access to conscious report, as well as between subliminal, preconscious and conscious processing, and that conscious perception is systematically associated with surges of parieto-frontal activity causing top-down amplification.
1,693 citations
References
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TL;DR: A new hypothesis about the role of focused attention is proposed, which offers a new set of criteria for distinguishing separable from integral features and a new rationale for predicting which tasks will show attention limits and which will not.
11,452 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a 1-sec tachistoscopic exposure, Ss responded with a right or left leverpress to a single target letter from the sets H and K or S and C. The target always appeared directly above the fixation cross.
Abstract: During a 1-sec tachistoscopic exposure, Ss responded with a right or left leverpress to a single target letter from the sets H and K or S and C. The target always appeared directly above the fixation cross. Experimentally varied were the types of noise letters (response compatible or incompatible) flanking the target and the spacing between the letters in the display. In all noise conditions, reaction time (RT) decreased as between-letter spacing increased. However, noise letters of the opposite response set were found to impair RT significantly more than same response set noise, while mixed noise letters belonging to neither set but having set-related features produced intermediate impairment. Differences between two target-alone control conditions, one presented intermixed with noise-condition trials and one presented separately in blocks, gave evidence of a preparatory set on the part of Ss to inhibit responses to the noise letters. It was concluded that S cannot prevent processing of noise letters occurring within about 1 deg of the target due to the nature of processing channel capacity and must inhibit his response until he is able to discriminate exactly which letter is in the target position. This discrimination is more difficult and time consuming at closer spacings, and inhibition is more difficult when noise letters indicate the opposite response from the targe
6,234 citations
"Electrophysiological Evidence for a..." refers background in this paper
...When such interference is found, it is often used as evidence that the distractors are fully identified and that selection therefore occurs at a postperceptual stage (e.g., B. A. Eriksen & Eriksen, 1974; Hagenaar & van der Heijden, 1986)....
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Book•
01 Jan 1995TL;DR: The fourth edition of The Cognitive Neurosciences continues to chart new directions in the study of the biologic underpinnings of complex cognition -the relationship between the structural and physiological mechanisms of the nervous system and the psychological reality of the mind as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Each edition of this classic reference has proved to be a benchmark in the developing field of cognitive neuroscience. The fourth edition of The Cognitive Neurosciences continues to chart new directions in the study of the biologic underpinnings of complex cognition -- the relationship between the structural and physiological mechanisms of the nervous system and the psychological reality of the mind. The material in this edition is entirely new, with all chapters written specifically for it. Since the publication of the third edition, the field of cognitive neuroscience has made rapid and dramatic advances; fundamental stances are changing and new ideas are emerging. This edition reflects the vibrancy of the field, with research in development and evolution that finds a dynamic growth pattern becoming specific and fixed, and research in plasticity that sees the neuronal systems always changing; exciting new empirical evidence on attention that also verifies many central tenets of longstanding theories; work that shows the boundaries of the motor system pushed further into cognition; memory research that, paradoxically, provides insight into how humans imagine future events; pioneering theoretical and methodological work in vision; new findings on how genes and experience shape the language faculty; new ideas about how the emotional brain develops and operates; and research on consciousness that ranges from a novel mechanism for how the brain generates the baseline activity necessary to sustain conscious experience to a bold theoretical attempt to make the problem of qualia more tractable.
4,285 citations
TL;DR: In a sentence reading task, words that occurred out of context were associated with specific types of event-related brain potentials that elicited a late negative wave (N400).
Abstract: In a sentence reading task, words that occurred out of context were associated with specific types of event-related brain potentials. Words that were physically aberrant (larger than normal) elecited a late positive series of potentials, whereas semantically inappropriate words elicited a late negative wave (N400). The N400 wave may be an electrophysiological sign of the "reprocessing" of semantically anomalous information.
4,226 citations
"Electrophysiological Evidence for a..." refers background or result in this paper
...The waveforms consisted primarily of a single large deflection with the usual characteristics of the N400 component (Kutas & Hillyard, 1980b, 1983; Kutas et al., 1988)....
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...…that the polarity, timing, and scalp distribution of the activity observed in this experiment are consistent with the hypothesis that this activity consisted primarily of the same N400 component that has been observed previously (Kutas & Hillyard, 1980b; Kutas & Hillyard, 1983; Kutas et al., 1988)....
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...…is a large negative component that peaks approximately 400 ms after the onset of a stimulus and reflects the degree of mismatch between a word and a previously established semantic context (Besson et al., 1992; Kutas & Hillyard, 1980a; Kutas et al., 1988; Osterhout & Holcomb, 1995; Rugg, 1984)....
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...The N400 component is highly sensitive to the degree of mismatch between a word and a previously established semantic context (Besson, Kutas, & Van Petten, 1992; Kutas & Hillyard, 1980a; Kutas, Van Petten, & Besson, 1988; Osterhout & Holcomb, 1995; Rugg, 1984)....
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TL;DR: It is demonstrated that it is possible to retain information about only four colours or orientations in visual working memory at one time, but it is also possible to retaining both the colour and the orientation of four objects, indicating that visual workingMemory stores integrated objects rather than individual features.
Abstract: Short-term memory storage can be divided into separate subsystems for verbal information and visual information, and recent studies have begun to delineate the neural substrates of these working-memory systems. Although the verbal storage system has been well characterized, the storage capacity of visual working memory has not yet been established for simple, suprathreshold features or for conjunctions of features. Here we demonstrate that it is possible to retain information about only four colours or orientations in visual working memory at one time. However, it is also possible to retain both the colour and the orientation of four objects, indicating that visual working memory stores integrated objects rather than individual features. Indeed, objects defined by a conjunction of four features can be retained in working memory just as well as single-feature objects, allowing sixteen individual features to be retained when distributed across four objects. Thus, the capacity of visual working memory must be understood in terms of integrated objects rather than individual features, which places significant constraints on cognitive and neurobiological models of the temporary storage of visual information.
3,608 citations