Automatic and voluntary focusing of attention

In this study, we investigate whether attentional focusing, like attentional orienting, comprises two independent mechanisms. We provide direct empirical evidence in favor of the existence of two mechanisms—one exogenous, or automatic, and one endogenous, or voluntary—that play a role in adjusting the size of the focus of attention. When a new object suddenly occurs in the visual field, the focus is first automatically fitted to it, and then an endogenous effort has to be exerted to maintain attention in the focused mode. Also, we provide evidence that voluntary focusing needs a perceptual object in order to operate.

[1]  D. LaBerge.  Spatial extent of attention to letters and words. , 1983, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[2]  Carlo Umiltà,et al.  Differential effects of central and peripheral cues on the reorienting of spatial attention. , 1991 .

[3]  D. Kahneman,et al.  The cost of visual filtering. , 1983, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[4]  S. Yantis,et al.  Abrupt visual onsets and selective attention: voluntary versus automatic allocation. , 1990, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[5]  H L Hawkins,et al.  Effects of target luminance and cue validity on the latency of visual detection , 1988, Perception & psychophysics.

[6]  E. N. Sokolov,et al.  Perception and the Conditioned Reflex , 1965 .

[7]  A. H. C. van der Heijden,et al.  Selective Attention in Vision , 1991 .

[8]  J. Jonides.  Voluntary versus automatic control over the mind's eye's movement , 1981 .

[9]  U. Castiello,et al.  Size of the attentional focus and efficiency of processing. , 1990, Acta psychologica.

[10]  M. Posner,et al.  Attention and the detection of signals. , 1980, Journal of experimental psychology.

[11]  Carlo Umiltà,et al.  Spatial stimulus coding and the focus of attention in S-R compatibility and the Simon effect , 1997 .

[12]  William C. Ogden,et al.  Attended and unattended processing modes: The role of set for spatial location , 2014 .

[13]  C. Umilta,et al.  Deficits in The Control of The Attentional Focus in Chronic Schizophrenics , 1998, Cortex.

[14]  B G Breitmeyer,et al.  Implications of sustained and transient channels for theories of visual pattern masking, saccadic suppression, and information processing. , 1976, Psychological review.

[15]  J Miller,et al.  The control of attention by abrupt visual onsets and offsets , 1989, Perception & psychophysics.

[16]  H. J. Muller,et al.  Reflexive and voluntary orienting of visual attention: time course of activation and resistance to interruption. , 1989, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[17]  J. Henderson,et al.  The spatial distribution of attention following an exogenous cue , 1993, Perception & psychophysics.

[18]  L. Riggio,et al.  The relationship between central cues and peripheral cues in covert visual orientation , 1997, Perception & psychophysics.

[19]  Howard E. Egeth,et al.  Attention and Preattention , 1977 .

[20]  J. Henderson,et al.  Stimulus discrimination following covert attentional orienting to an exogenous cue. , 1991, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[21]  Michael I. Posner,et al.  Structures and Functions of Selective Attention. , 1987 .

[22]  S. Petersen,et al.  Contributions of the pulvinar to visual spatial attention , 1987, Neuropsychologia.

[23]  J. Juola,et al.  Voluntary allocation versus automatic capture of visual attention , 1990, Perception & psychophysics.

[24]  C. Eriksen,et al.  Allocation of attention in the visual field. , 1985, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[25]  C. Eriksen,et al.  Temporal and spatial characteristics of selective encoding from visual displays , 1972 .

[26]  R. Shiffrin,et al.  Controlled and automatic human information processing: I , 1977 .

[27]  J. Theeuwes.  Exogenous and endogenous control of attention: The effect of visual onsets and offsets , 1991, Perception & psychophysics.

[28]  S. Yantis.  Stimulus-driven attentional capture and attentional control settings. , 1993, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[29]  M. Posner,et al.  Orienting of Attention* , 1980, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[30]  D. LaBerge,et al.  Variations in size of the visual field in which targets are presented: An attentional range effect , 1986, Perception & psychophysics.

[31]  J. Theeuwes.  Stimulus-driven capture and attentional set: selective search for color and visual abrupt onsets. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[32]  S. Yantis,et al.  Abrupt visual onsets and selective attention: Evidence from visual search. , 1984 .

[33]  S. Yantis,et al.  Stimulus-driven attentional capture: evidence from equiluminant visual objects. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[34]  D. Kahneman,et al.  The reviewing of object files: Object-specific integration of information , 1992, Cognitive Psychology.

[35]  D. LaBerge,et al.  Theory of attentional operations in shape identification. , 1989 .

[36]  M. Posner,et al.  How do the parietal lobes direct covert attention? , 1987, Neuropsychologia.

[37]  T. Stoffer.  Attentional focussing and spatial stimulus-response compatibility , 1991, Psychological research.

[38]  L. Hasher,et al.  Automatic and effortful processes in memory. , 1979 .

[39]  S. Yantis,et al.  Uniqueness of abrupt visual onset in capturing attention , 1988, Perception & psychophysics.

[40]  S. Yantis,et al.  Abrupt visual onsets and selective attention: evidence from visual search. , 1984, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[41]  J T Todd,et al.  Implications of a transient-sustained dichotomy for the measurement of human performance. , 1979, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[42]  W. Prinz,et al.  Theoretical issues in stimulus-response compatibility , 1997 .

[43]  J. Duncan.  Selective attention and the organization of visual information. , 1984, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[44]  J. C. Johnston,et al.  Involuntary covert orienting is contingent on attentional control settings. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[45]  U. Castiello,et al.  Splitting focal attention. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[46]  R W Remington,et al.  The structure of attentional control: contingent attentional capture by apparent motion, abrupt onset, and color. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[47]  Francesco Maringelli Carlo Umilta,et al.  The Control of the Attentional Focus , 1998 .

[48]  James F. Juola,et al.  Relative Effectiveness of Central, Peripheral, and Abrupt-onset Cues in Visual Attention , 1992, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[49]  Francesco Benso Massimo Turatto Gian Gastone Mascetti Carlo Umilta.  The Time Course of Attentional Focusing , 1998 .

[50]  C. Eriksen,et al.  Visual attention within and around the field of focal attention: A zoom lens model , 1986, Perception & psychophysics.

[51]  N. Kanwisher,et al.  Objects, Attributes, and Visual Attention: Which, What, and Where , 1992 .

[52]  S Yantis,et al.  Allocating visual attention: tests of a two-process model. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[53]  J. Findlay,et al.  The effect of visual attention on peripheral discrimination thresholds in single and multiple element displays. , 1988, Acta psychologica.

[54]  Charles W. Eriksen,et al.  Selective attention and serial processing in briefly presented visual displays , 1971 .

[55]  A Treisman,et al.  Perceptual objects and the cost of filtering , 1983, Perception & psychophysics.

[56]  I..  THE ATTENTION SYSTEM OF THE HUMAN BRAIN , 2002 .

[57]  M. Posner,et al.  Components of visual orienting , 1984 .