Showing papers on "Attentional blink published in 2015"
TL;DR: A functional hierarchy of unconscious visual processing can in principle be established and bears importantly on the search for, and the distinctions between, neural correlates of conscious and unconscious vision.
98 citations
TL;DR: The way in which cognitive-enhancement techniques, such as binaural beats, affect cognitive performance depends on inter-individual differences, as predicted from a neurocognitive approach to cognitive control.
Abstract: Enhancing human cognitive performance is a topic that continues to spark scientific interest. Studies into cognitive enhancement techniques often fail to take inter-individual differences into account, however, which leads to underestimation of the effectiveness of these techniques. The current study investigated the effect of binaural beats, a cognitive enhancement technique, on attentional control in an attentional blink task. As predicted from a neurocognitive approach to cognitive control, high-frequency binaural beats eliminated the attentional blink, but only in individuals with low spontaneous eye-blink rates (indicating low striatal dopamine levels). This suggests that the way in which cognitive enhancement techniques, such as binaural beats, affect cognitive performance depends on inter-individual differences.
49 citations
TL;DR: The common demands hypothesis, which suggests that transfer is dependent upon common demands between the game and transfer task, is suggested to be correct.
Abstract: Despite increasing evidence that shows action video game play improves perceptual and cognitive skills, the mechanisms of transfer are not well-understood. In line with previous work, we suggest that transfer is dependent upon common demands between the game and transfer task. In the current study, participants played one of four action games with varying speed, visual, and attentional demands for 20 h. We examined whether training enhanced performance for attentional blink, selective attention, attending to multiple items, visual search and auditory detection. Non-gamers who played the game (Modern Combat) with the highest demands showed transfer to tasks of attentional blink and attending to multiple items. The game (MGS Touch) with fewer attentional demands also decreased attentional blink, but to a lesser degree. Other games failed to show transfer, despite having many action game characteristics but at a reduced intensity. The results support the common demands hypothesis.
49 citations
TL;DR: Findings suggest that attentional biases in PTSD are linked to deficits in very rapid regulatory activation observed in healthy control subjects, suggesting that sufferers with PTSD may literally see a world more populated by traumatic cues, contributing to a positive feedback loop that perpetuates the effects of trauma.
46 citations
TL;DR: It is suggested that rumination in MDD is associated with select deficits in cognitive control, particularly related to conflict monitoring, and whether their behavioral performance and ERPs varied with level of rumination.
Abstract: Individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) often ruminate about past experiences, especially those with negative content. These repetitive thoughts may interfere with cognitive processes related to attention and conflict monitoring. However, the temporal nature of these processes as reflected in event-related potentials (ERPs) has not been well-described. We examined behavioral and ERP indices of conflict monitoring during a modified flanker task and the allocation of attention during an attentional blink (AB) task in 33 individuals with MDD and 36 healthy controls, and whether their behavioral performance and ERPs varied with level of rumination. N2 amplitude elicited by the flanker task was significantly reduced in participants with MDD compared to healthy controls. Level of self-reported rumination was also correlated with N2 amplitude. In contrast, P3 amplitude during the AB task was not significantly different between groups, nor was it correlated with rumination. No significant differences were found in behavioral task performance measures between groups or by rumination levels. These findings suggest that rumination in MDD is associated with select deficits in cognitive control, particularly related to conflict monitoring.
43 citations
TL;DR: The findings suggest that, although the AB delays target encoding into working memory, it does not slow down detection of a target but instead reduces the efficacy of this process.
Abstract: This article explores the time course of the functional interplay between detection and encoding stages of information processing in the brain and the role they play in conscious visual perception. We employed a multitarget rapid serial visual presentation RSVP approach and examined the electrophysiological P3 component elicited by a target terminating an RSVP sequence. Target-locked P3 activity was detected both at frontal and parietal recording sites and an independent component analysis confirmed the presence of two distinct P3 components. The posterior P3b varied with intertarget lag, with diminished amplitude and postponed latency at short relative to long lags-an electroencephalographic signature of the attentional blink AB. Under analogous conditions, the anterior P3a was also reduced in amplitude but did not vary in latency. Collectively, the results provide an electrophysiological record of the interaction between frontal and posterior components linked to detection P3a and encoding P3b of visual information. Our findings suggest that, although the AB delays target encoding into working memory, it does not slow down detection of a target but instead reduces the efficacy of this process. A functional characterization of P3a in attentive tasks is discussed with reference to current models of the AB phenomenon.
43 citations
TL;DR: In this article, healthy adult non-meditators underwent a brief single session of either focused attention meditation (FAM) or open monitoring meditation (OMM) before performing an Attentional Blink (AB) task, which assesses the efficiency of allocating attention over time.
41 citations
TL;DR: Findings support the idea that left DLPFC plays a critical role in the AB and in conscious access more generally, and are in line with the notion that there is an optimal level of prefrontal activity for cognitive function, with both too little and too much activity hurting performance.
Abstract: Selection mechanisms that dynamically gate only relevant perceptual information for further processing and sustained representation in working memory are critical for goal-directed behavior. We examined whether this gating process can be modulated by anodal transcranial direct current stimulation tDCS over left dorsolateral pFC DLPFC-a region known to play a key role in working memory and conscious access. Specifically, we examined the effects of tDCS on the magnitude of the so-called "attentional blink" AB, a deficit in identifying the second of two targets presented in rapid succession. Thirty-four participants performed a standard AB task before baseline, during, and after 20 min of 1-mA anodal and cathodal tDCS in two separate sessions. On the basis of previous reports linking individual differences in AB magnitude to individual differences in DLPFC activity and on suggestions that effects of tDCS depend on baseline brain activity levels, we hypothesized that anodal tDCS over left DLPFC would modulate the magnitude of the AB as a function of individual baseline AB magnitude. Indeed, individual differences analyses revealed that anodal tDCS decreased the AB in participants with a large baseline AB but increased the AB in participants with a small baseline AB. This effect was only observed during but not after stimulation, was not found for cathodal tDCS, and could not be explained by regression to the mean. Notably, the effects of tDCS were not apparent at the group level, highlighting the importance of taking individual variability in performance into account when evaluating the effectiveness of tDCS. These findings support the idea that left DLPFC plays a critical role in the AB and in conscious access more generally. They are also in line with the notion that there is an optimal level of prefrontal activity for cognitive function, with both too little and too much activity hurting performance.
37 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the influence of an endogenous process on TOJ, and showed that the perception of temporal order is also affected when available attentional resources are reduced via an attentional blink (AB) paradigm.
Abstract: The temporal order of two events, each presented in a different visual hemifield, is judged correctly by typical observers even when their onsets differ only slightly. The present study examined the influence of an endogenous process on TOJ, and shows that the perception of temporal order is also affected when available attentional resources are reduced via an attentional blink (AB) paradigm. Participants were presented with a first visual target stimulus (T1) at fixation and after a delay (either 280 or 1030 ms) a pair of lateralized stimulus occurred (T2). For the dual task and with the 280 delay between T1 and T2, accuracy in the TOJ deteriorated evincing an AB. However, instead of the left favoring asymmetry in normal attention conditions, a significant bias away from the left space emerged during the AB. The lateralization of visual attention can be studied with the temporal order judgment (TOJ) task. In this task two stimuli are presented, one in each visual hemifield and with variable time lags between them. Then subjects have to judge which stimulus appears first (Shore & Spence, 2005). TOJ provides us with two fundamental measures of the possible effects of attention: (i) the time interval between stimuli for which the observer is able to differentiate their order, and (ii) the precision with which the task can be performed. Two summary statistics have typically been computed from data: (i) the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS) and (ii) the just noticeable difference (JND). PSS refers to the interval between two stimuli at which observers reports maximal uncertainty and JND provides a measure of how far in time must be presented for them to be ordered in time with a reliability of 75% accuracy level. The temporal order of the two events is judged correctly by typical observers even when their onsets differ only slightly (Stelmach & Herdman, 1991). If attention is drawn to one side of the visual field by an exogenous
26 citations
TL;DR: If the attentional blink task is indeed particularly sensitive to attentional biases, as the findings indicate, it is not unreasonable to expect that interventions based on this task may be more effective than those based on the tasks that are currently used.
25 citations
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that older adults can narrow their attentional focus, but that they are delayed in initiating this process compared to younger adults.
Abstract: Many sensory and cognitive changes accompany normal ageing, including changes to visual attention. Several studies have investigated age-related changes in the control of attention to specific locations (spatial orienting), but it is unknown whether control over the distribution or breadth of attention (spatial focus) also changes with age. In the present study, we employed a dual-stream attentional blink task and assessed changes to the spatial distribution of attention through the joint consequences of temporal lag and spatial separation on second-target accuracy. Experiment 1 compared the rate at which attention narrows in younger (mean age 22.6, SD 4.25) and older (mean age 66.8, SD 4.36) adults. The results showed that whereas young adults can narrow attention to one stream within 133 ms, older adults were unable to do the same within this time period. Experiment 2 showed that older adults can narrow their attention to one stream when given more time (266 ms). Experiment 3 confirmed that age-related changes in retinal illuminance did not account for delayed attentional narrowing in older adults. Considered together, these experiments demonstrate that older adults can narrow their attentional focus, but that they are delayed in initiating this process compared to younger adults. This finding adds to previously reported reductions in attentional dynamics, deficits in inhibitory processes, and reductions in posterior parietal cortex function that accompany normal ageing.
TL;DR: In both experiments, performance on the global/local tasks predicted subsequent AB performance, such that individuals with a greater preference for the global information showed a reduced AB, which supports previous findings, as well as recent models which discuss the role of attentional breadth in selective attention.
Abstract: When the second of two targets (T2) is presented temporally close to the first target (T1) in a rapid serial visual presentation stream, accuracy to identify T2 is markedly reduced—an attentional blink (AB). While most individuals show an AB, Dale and Arnell (Atten Percept Psychophys 72(3):602–606, 2010) demonstrated that individual differences in dispositional attentional focus predicted AB performance, such that individuals who showed a natural bias toward the global level of Navon letter stimuli were less susceptible to the AB and showed a smaller AB effect. For the current study, we extended the findings of Dale and Arnell (Atten Percept Psychophys 72(3):602–606, 2010) through two experiments. In Experiment 1, we examined the relationship between dispositional global/local bias and the AB using a highly reliable hierarchical shape task measure. In Experiment 2, we examined whether three distinct global/local measures could predict AB performance. In both experiments, performance on the global/local tasks predicted subsequent AB performance, such that individuals with a greater preference for the global information showed a reduced AB. This supports previous findings, as well as recent models which discuss the role of attentional breadth in selective attention.
TL;DR: It is shown that training without a salient target, but with a consistent short target interval, is already sufficient to attenuate the AB, and the data point to the existence of temporal expectations at the time points of the trained targets posttraining.
Abstract: One of the major topics in attention literature is the attentional blink AB, which demonstrates a limited ability to identify the second of two targets T1 and T2 when presented in close temporal succession 200-500 msec. Given that the effect has been thought of as robust and resistant to training for over two decades, one of the most remarkable findings in recent years is that the AB can be eliminated after a 1-hr training with a color-salient T2. However, the underlying mechanism of the training effect as well as the AB itself is as of yet still poorly understood. To elucidate this training effect, we employed a refined version of our recently developed pupil dilation deconvolution method to track any training-induced changes in the amount and onset of attentional processing in response to target stimuli. Behaviorally, we replicated the original training effect with a color-salient T2. However, we showed that training without a salient target, but with a consistent short target interval, is already sufficient to attenuate the AB. Pupil deconvolution did not reveal any posttraining changes in T2-related dilation but instead an earlier onset of dilation around T1. Moreover, normalized pupil dilation was enhanced posttraining compared with pretraining. We conclude that the AB can be eliminated by training without a salient cue. Furthermore, our data point to the existence of temporal expectations at the time points of the trained targets posttraining. Therefore, we tentatively conclude that temporal expectations arise as a result of training.
TL;DR: The findings show that the interaction between conscious and unconscious processing changes adaptively as a function of the probabilistic properties of the sensory environment and that the combination of an active attentional state with loose Probabilistic and temporal expectancies on forthcoming conscious events favors the emergence to awareness of otherwise unnoticed visual events.
TL;DR: The experiments show that the enhanced performance cannot be simply explained by eye patching alone, or to improved visual acuity, but is specific to videogame experience, and videogame training might have important therapeutic applications for amblyopia and other visual brain disorders.
Abstract: Video game play induces a generalized recovery of a range of spatial visual functions in the amblyopic brain. Here we ask whether video game play also alters temporal processing in the amblyopic brain. When visual targets are presented in rapid succession, correct identification of the first target (T1) can interfere with identification of the second (T2). This is known as the “attentional blink”. We measured the attentional blink in each eye of adults with amblyopia before and after 40 hours of active video game play, using a rapid serial visual presentation technique. After videogame play, we observed a ~40% reduction in the attentional blink (identifying T2 200 ms after T1) seen through the amblyopic eye and this improvement in performance transferred substantially to the untrained fellow sound eye. Our experiments show that the enhanced performance cannot be simply explained by eye patching alone, or to improved visual acuity, but is specific to videogame experience. Thus, videogame training might have important therapeutic applications for amblyopia and other visual brain disorders.
TL;DR: Meditation can increase attention and enhance efficiency of brain resource allocation with greater emotional control through event-related potentials, a relatively noninvasive method to assess the integrity of sensory pathways.
Abstract: Evoked potentials (EPs) are a relatively noninvasive method to assess the integrity of sensory pathways. As the neural generators for most of the components are relatively well worked out, EPs have been used to understand the changes occurring during meditation. Event-related potentials (ERPs) yield useful information about the response to tasks, usually assessing attention. A brief review of the literature yielded eleven studies on EPs and seventeen on ERPs from 1978 to 2014. The EP studies covered short, mid, and long latency EPs, using both auditory and visual modalities. ERP studies reported the effects of meditation on tasks such as the auditory oddball paradigm, the attentional blink task, mismatched negativity, and affective picture viewing among others. Both EP and ERPs were recorded in several meditations detailed in the review. Maximum changes occurred in mid latency (auditory) EPs suggesting that maximum changes occur in the corresponding neural generators in the thalamus, thalamic radiations, and primary auditory cortical areas. ERP studies showed meditation can increase attention and enhance efficiency of brain resource allocation with greater emotional control.
TL;DR: A new method for measuring spatial gradients of interference at different temporal separations between two targets without creating specific expectations about target location is presented and a theoretical model is proposed that illustrates how three distinct forms of interference could arise through the processes of identifying, attending, and encoding visual targets.
Abstract: A major thread of visual cognition has been to explore the characteristics of the attention system by presenting two targets and observing how well they can both be reported as a function of their temporal and spatial separation. This method has illuminated effects such as the attentional blink, the attentional dwell time, competitive interference, sparing temporal order errors, and localized attentional interference. However, these different effects are typically explored separately, using quite distinct experimental paradigms. In an effort to consolidate our understanding of these various effects into a more comprehensive theory of attention, we present a new method for measuring spatial gradients of interference at different temporal separations between two targets without creating specific expectations about target location. The observed data support theories that there are multiple sources of interference within the visual system. A theoretical model is proposed that illustrates how three distinct forms of interference could arise through the processes of identifying, attending, and encoding visual targets.
TL;DR: It is suggested that mind wandering may be the behavioural outcome of an adaptive cognitive style intended to maximize the efficient processing of dynamic and temporally unpredictable events.
Abstract: The present studies investigate the hypothesis that individuals who frequently report experiencing episodes of mind wandering do so because they under-invest attentional/executive resources in the external environment. Here we examined whether self-reported instances of mind wandering predict the magnitude of the “attentional blink” (AB) in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task, since a prominent view is that the AB derives from an over-investment of attention in the information stream. Study 1 demonstrates that subjective reports of mind wandering in a sustained attention task have a negative predictive relation with respect to the magnitude of the AB measured in a subsequent RSVP task. In addition, using the Spontaneous and Deliberate Mind Wandering Questionnaire in Study 2, we were again able to show that trait-level mind wandering in everyday life negatively predicts AB magnitude. We suggest that mind wandering may be the behavioural outcome of an adaptive cognitive style intended to maximize...
TL;DR: Differences in pre-target electrophysiology between correctly and incorrectly reported trials are examined, considering amplitude and phase measures of alpha oscillations as well as the steady-state visual evoked potential (ssVEP) evoked by the RSVP stream to suggest a dynamic brain state that predicts lower accuracy in terms of reporting the second target under strict temporal constraints.
Abstract: Reporting the second of two targets within a stream of distracting words during rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) is impaired when the targets are separated by a single distractor word, a deficit in temporal attention that has been referred to as the attentional blink (AB) Recent conceptual and empirical work has pointed to pre-target brain states as potential mediators of the AB effect The current study examined differences in pre-target electrophysiology between correctly and incorrectly reported trials, considering amplitude and phase measures of alpha oscillations as well as the steady-state visual evoked potential (ssVEP) evoked by the RSVP stream For incorrectly reported trials, relatively lower alpha-band power and greater ssVEP inter-trial phase locking were observed during extended time periods preceding presentation of the first target These results suggest that facilitated processing of the pre-target distracter stream indexed by reduced alpha and heightened phase locking characterizes a dynamic brain state that predicts lower accuracy in terms of reporting the second target under strict temporal constraints Findings align with hypotheses in which the AB effect is attributed to neurocognitive factors such as fluctuations in pre-target attention or to cognitive strategies applied at the trial level
TL;DR: Evidence that sleep boosts practice-dependent reduction of the attentional blink is found, and it is suggested that sleep, particularly N2 sleep and sleep spindles, improves attentional selection in time.
Abstract: The attentional blink (AB) is an impairment in detecting the second of two targets that appear in close temporal succession. We investigated the effect of practice and a nap on the magnitude of the AB deficit. We found evidence that sleep boosts practice-dependent reduction of the AB. Participants reported two target letters embedded in a rapid serial visual presentation display. After two morning sessions, half the participants took a polysomnographically recorded nap, while the others remained awake. Comparing two afternoon sessions to the two morning sessions, we observed a decreased AB only within the group who napped. The improvement was due to increased efficacy of the attentional selection of T2 (the probability of reporting a T2-relevant item). There was no change in selection’s latency or temporal precision. The magnitude of improvement was positively associated with the duration of N2 sleep and the number of N2 sleep spindles. Our results suggest that sleep, particularly N2 sleep and sleep spindles, improves attentional selection in time.
TL;DR: It is found that the integration dysfunction rather than deployment of attention is clinically relevant, and thus should be an additional focus of research in schizophrenia.
Abstract: Patients with schizophrenia are known to have impairments in sensory processing. In order to understand the specific temporal perception deficits of schizophrenia, we investigated and determined to what extent impairments in temporal integration can be dissociated from attention deployment using Attentional Blink (AB). Our findings showed that there was no evident deficit in the deployment of attention in patients with schizophrenia. However, patients showed an increased temporal integration deficit within a hundred-millisecond timescale. The degree of such integration dysfunction was correlated with the clinical manifestations of schizophrenia. There was no difference between individuals with/without schizotypal personality disorder in temporal integration. Differently from previous studies using the AB, we did not find a significant impairment in deployment of attention in schizophrenia. Instead, we used both theoretical and empirical approaches to show that previous findings (using the suppression ratio to correct for the baseline difference) produced a systematic exaggeration of the attention deficits. Instead, we modulated the perceptual difficulty of the task to bring the baseline levels of target detection between the groups into closer alignment. We found that the integration dysfunction rather than deployment of attention is clinically relevant, and thus should be an additional focus of research in schizophrenia.
TL;DR: It is found that in addition to a traditional P3 attention effect, the amplitude of N170/VPP to the T2 stimuli was also sensitive to attentional resources, suggesting that attention affects face processing at an earlier perceptual processing stage.
TL;DR: Results demonstrate that participants can predict the likely onset of T2 by using statistical patterns present in the AB task, and that they can use this ability to more effectively direct limited processing resources.
Abstract: Previous studies have shown that humans are sensitive to statistical patterns indicating the likely locations, identities, and timings of visual targets. Here we tested whether participants can also use this kind of information to ameliorate the attentional blink (AB)—a reduction in accuracy for the second of two targets (T1, T2) presented at brief intertarget intervals (lags). In particular, we asked whether participants can use patterns arising from differential distributions of intertarget lags across trials to predict the arrival of T2. We tested this by comparing the ABs in an aging versus a nonaging distribution of trials, where aging refers to the increased likelihood of T2, given that it has not yet occurred, when lags occur with equal frequencies. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that the aging condition yielded greater T2 accuracy at longer lags than did the nonaging condition. In Experiment 3, we used a more sensitive response time measure to show faster T2 discrimination at shorter lags in the nonaging condition. These results demonstrate that participants can predict the likely onset of T2 by using statistical patterns present in the AB task, and that they can use this ability to more effectively direct limited processing resources.
TL;DR: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, it is confirmed that visual and auditory targets produce similar, distributed patterns of frontoparietal activity, and an attentional blink EEG/MEG design is designed, suggesting parallel brain responses to target events in different sensory modalities.
Abstract: In the attentional blink, a target event (T1) strongly interferes with perception of a second target (T2) presented within a few hundred milliseconds. Concurrently, the brain's electromagnetic response to the second target is suppressed, especially a late negative-positive EEG complex including the traditional P3 wave. An influential theory proposes that conscious perception requires access to a distributed, frontoparietal global workspace, explaining the attentional blink by strong mutual inhibition between concurrent workspace representations. Often, however, the attentional blink is reduced or eliminated for targets in different sensory modalities, suggesting a limit to such global inhibition. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we confirm that visual and auditory targets produce similar, distributed patterns of frontoparietal activity. In an attentional blink EEG/MEG design, however, an auditory T1 and visual T2 are identified without mutual interference, with largely preserved electromagnetic responses to T2. The results suggest parallel brain responses to target events in different sensory modalities.
TL;DR: It is found that the timing of attention to targets may be more important than the amount of allocated attention in accounting for individual differences, and the dynamics of temporal attention in small versus large blinkers differ in a number of ways.
Abstract: Background Attention is restricted for the second of two targets when it is presented within 200-500 ms of the first target. This attentional blink (AB) phenomenon allows one to study the dynamics of temporal selective attention by varying the interval between the two targets (T1 and T2). Whereas the AB has long been considered as a robust and universal cognitive limitation, several studies have demonstrated that AB task performance greatly differs between individuals, with some individuals showing no AB whatsoever. Methodology/Principal Findings Here, we studied these individual differences in AB task performance in relation to differences in attentional timing. Furthermore, we investigated whether AB magnitude is predictive for the amount of attention allocated to T1. For both these purposes pupil dilation was measured, and analyzed with our recently developed deconvolution method. We found that the dynamics of temporal attention in small versus large blinkers differ in a number of ways. Individuals with a relatively small AB magnitude seem better able to preserve temporal order information. In addition, they are quicker to allocate attention to both T1 and T2 than large blinkers. Although a popular explanation of the AB is that it is caused by an unnecessary overinvestment of attention allocated to T1, a more complex picture emerged from our data, suggesting that this may depend on whether one is a small or a large blinker. Conclusion The use of pupil dilation deconvolution seems to be a powerful approach to study the temporal dynamics of attention, bringing us a step closer to understanding the elusive nature of the AB. We conclude that the timing of attention to targets may be more important than the amount of allocated attention in accounting for individual differences.
TL;DR: The findings advance the understanding of threat feature processing that might contribute to the onset and maintenance of symptoms in specific phobia and disorders that involve visual threat information more generally.
Abstract: People with anxiety or stress-related disorders attend differently to threat-relevant compared with non-threat stimuli, yet the temporal mechanisms of differential allocation of attention are not well understood. We investigated two independent mechanisms of temporal processing of visual threat by comparing spider-phobic and non-fearful participants using a rapid serial visual presentation task. Consistent with prior literature, spider phobics, but not non-fearful controls, displayed threat-specific facilitated detection of spider stimuli relative to negative stimuli and neutral stimuli. Further, signal detection analyses revealed that facilitated threat detection in spider-phobic participants was driven by greater sensitivity to threat stimulus features and a trend towards a lower threshold for detecting spider stimuli. However, phobic participants did not display reliably slowed temporal disengagement from threat-relevant stimuli. These findings advance our understanding of threat feature processing that might contribute to the onset and maintenance of symptoms in specific phobia and disorders that involve visual threat information more generally.
TL;DR: It was concluded that mood-congruence is important for stimulus detection, but that sadness uniquely influences post-identification processing when attention is first focused on mood-Congruent information.
Abstract: Participants completed single and dual rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) tasks. Across five experiments, either the mood of the participant or valence of the target was manipulated to create pairings in which the critical target was either mood congruent or mood noncongruent. When the second target (T2) in an RSVP stream was congruent with the participant's mood, performance was enhanced. This was true for happy and sad moods and in single- and dual-task conditions. In contrast, the effects of congruence varied when the focus was on the first target (T1). When in a sad mood and having attended to a sad T1, detection of a neutral T2 was impaired, resulting in a stronger attentional blink (AB). There was no effect of stimulus-mood congruence for T1 when in a happy mood. It was concluded that mood-congruence is important for stimulus detection, but that sadness uniquely influences post-identification processing when attention is first focused on mood-congruent information.
TL;DR: The results fit with the idea that a major source of attentional restriction as reflected in the AB lies in modality-specific, independent sensory systems rather than a central amodal system, and demonstrate that individual differences in AB magnitude can provide important information about the modular structure of human cognition.
Abstract: Background Formal musical training is known to have positive effects on attentional and executive functioning, processing speed, and working memory. Consequently, one may expect to find differences in the dynamics of temporal attention between musicians and non-musicians. Here we address the question whether that is indeed the case, and whether any beneficial effects of musical training on temporal attention are modality specific or generalize across sensory modalities. Methodology/Principal Findings When two targets are presented in close temporal succession, most people fail to report the second target, a phenomenon known as the attentional blink (AB). We measured and compared AB magnitude for musicians and non-musicians using auditory or visually presented letters and digits. Relative to non-musicians, the auditory AB was both attenuated and delayed in musicians, whereas the visual AB was larger. Non-musicians with a large auditory AB tended to show a large visual AB. However, neither a positive nor negative correlation was found in musicians, suggesting that at least in musicians, attentional restrictions within each modality are completely separate. Conclusion/Significance AB magnitude within one modality can generalize to another modality, but this turns out not to be the case for every individual. Formal musical training seems to have a domain-general, but modality-specific beneficial effect on selective attention. The results fit with the idea that a major source of attentional restriction as reflected in the AB lies in modality-specific, independent sensory systems rather than a central amodal system. The findings demonstrate that individual differences in AB magnitude can provide important information about the modular structure of human cognition.
TL;DR: The finding that the N2pc was delayed during the AB strongly suggests that attention is involved in the processing of pop-out search arrays, suggesting multiple sources of delay in the chain of processing events.
Abstract: In the phenomenon known as the attentional blink (AB), perception of the second of two rapidly sequential targets (T2) is impaired when presented shortly after the first (T1). Studies in which T2 consisted of a pop-out search array provided evidence suggesting that visual search is postponed during the AB. In the present work, we used behavioral and electrophysiological measures to test this postponement hypothesis. The behavioral measure was reaction time (RT) to T2; the electrophysiological measure was the onset latency of an ERP index of attentional selection, known as the N2pc. Consistent with the postponement hypothesis, both measures were delayed during the AB. The delay in N2pc was substantially shorter than that in RT, pointing to multiple sources of delay in the chain of processing events, as distinct from the single source postulated in current theories of the AB. Finally, the finding that the N2pc was delayed during the AB strongly suggests that attention is involved in the processing of pop-out search arrays.
TL;DR: The goal of the present study was to determine whether the attentional blink is caused by a failure in early selection processes, which leads to the selection and consolidation of the wrong item in working memory, by measuring the frequency-related P3 to T1 and to T2 + 1.
Abstract: The attentional blink (AB) refers to the impairment in accurate report of a second target (T2) when presented shortlyafter a first target (T1) in a rapid serial visual presentation of distractors. The goal of the present study was todetermine whether the AB is caused by a failure in early selection processes, which leads to the selection andconsolidation of the wrong item in working memory, by measuring the frequency-related P3 to T2 and to T211.During the AB, an attenuation of the P3 to T2 was observed, as well as an increase in the amplitude of the P3 toT211. Whereas the P3 to T2 was observed only when T2 was correctly reported, the P3 to T211 was observed onlyin trials where T2 was incorrectly reported, and its amplitude was correlated to individual differences in misselectionrate. These results support the claim that failure of temporal selection underlies the AB.Descriptors: Attentional blink, Misselection, Dual-task interference, Human electrophysiology, P3When interacting with its environment, an organism is constantlybombarded by ever-changing perceptual inputs from different sour-ces. The limited nature of our cognitive system makes it impossibleto process all these stimuli extensively, leaving many at the door-step of consciousness. For goal-directed behavior to be successfulin such an overwhelming environment, the cognitive system mustrely on attentional mechanisms to filter the flow of information inorder to prioritize processing of task-relevant events at the expenseof task-irrelevant events. However, failures in the ability to processmultiple target stimuli occurring closely in time suggest that thetemporal efficiency of selective attention is vulnerable to taskdemand (see, e.g., Shapiro, 2001). In order to investigate the sourceof fundamental limitations in temporal selection, the present studyaims to use ERPs to directly track which items are selected for fur-ther processing within the attentional blink (AB) paradigm, a dual-task paradigm that has been used extensively to investigate thetemporal limitations of human information processing (for recentreviews, see Dux & Marois, 2009; Martens & Wyble, 2010).The ABThe conventional visual AB task requires to report, without speedpressure, the identity of two targets embedded in a rapid serial vis-ual presentation (RSVP) stream of distractors (Raymond, Shapiro,& Arnell, 1992). The AB deficit refers to the difficulty in accu-rately reporting the second target (T2) when presented withinapproximately half a second after the first target (T1). Whereasmost theories of the AB agree that the second-target deficit reflectsimpairment in the processing of T2 while limited attentionalresources are committed to the processing of T1 (but see Olivers M Taatgen, Juvina, Schipper, Borst, & Martens, 2009),there is no consensus among researchers regarding the exact natureof the mechanisms underlying such a limitation. One importantongoing debate is whether the AB results from capacity limitationsin the consolidation of items into working memory or rather fromfailures in attentional selection of items to be consolidated.Capacity limits in short-term consolidation. Several theoriesclaim that the AB is the consequence of capacity limitations at thestage of consolidation into working memory (WM: e.g., Chun P Dehaene, Sergent, & Changeux, 2003; Jolicœur,1998; Potter, Staub, & O’Connor, 2002; Ward, Duncan, & Shapiro,1996). These theories often adhere to a two-stage structure of infor-mation processing as proposed in the two-stage model (Chun &Potter, 1995). In this influent model, the AB is presented as theconsequence of a capacity-limited second stage of processing,which allows the consolidation of targets that were detected in arapid and unlimited first stage. Stage 1 representations are