Intrusive Effects of Task Irrelevant Semantic Information on Visual Selective Attention

任务无关语义信息对视觉选择性注意的侵入性影响

• 批准号: 1534823
• 负责人: Sarah Shomstein
• 金额: $ 56.45万
• 依托单位: George Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2020-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1534823&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Intrusive; Effects; Task; Irrelevant; Semantic

Selective attention involves the remarkable ability to dynamically search for and select information from the environment that is relevant for the current goal. How the human cognitive system achieves this is a fundamental question in cognitive science. Given that what humans consciously perceive will, ultimately, depend on where attention is directed, understanding attentional mechanisms is an important first step toward revealing the neural mechanisms that support conscious awareness. It has long been established that physical features, such as spatial location or object appearance, can guide attentional selection in a spatial task. These researchers will examine the extent to which attention can be inadvertently grabbed by a visual item that is irrelevant to the spatial-orienting task at hand if that item happens to be semantically related to something recently experienced. The research team will investigate hypotheses regarding the underlying mechanism by which this type of attentional intrusion occurs during the process of trying to visually locate something. To further understanding of the basic mechanism, the research team will also use neuroimaging to examine at what neural stage in the visual system this intrusion effect takes place. Understanding what grabs visual attention and why could have important practical applications, such as better designing dynamic, interactive visual displays on devices such as tablets, smart phones, or computers. The proposed research project aims to test a set of novel predictions regarding the influence of high-level properties of a scene to attentional selection. A major goal is to rigorously test the hypothesis that task-irrelevant semantic information constrains attentional selection by directly acting on space- and object-based representations: task-irrelevant objects that semantically relate to something seen recently are more likely to be attended. Predictions will be tested using real-world scenes, and by utilizing real-world objects. In addition to the rigorous behavioral experiments aimed at understanding the mechanism by which task-irrelevant but semantically primed stimuli exert their intrusive effects on attention, the researchers will use neuroimaging methodology to examine hypotheses regarding at what stage in the human visual system the effects occur.

选择性注意力是一种从环境中动态搜索和选择与当前目标相关的信息的能力。人类认知系统如何实现这一点是认知科学中的一个基本问题。考虑到人类有意识地感知到什么，最终取决于注意力指向哪里，理解注意力机制是揭示支持有意识的神经机制的重要的第一步。长期以来，物理特征，如空间位置或物体外观，可以指导空间任务中的注意选择。这些研究人员将检查注意力在多大程度上会被与当前空间定向任务无关的视觉项目无意中抓住，如果该项目恰好与最近经历的事情在语义上相关。研究小组将调查关于这种类型的注意力入侵在试图视觉定位某物的过程中发生的潜在机制的假设。为了进一步了解基本机制，研究小组还将使用神经成像技术来检查这种侵入效应发生在视觉系统的哪个神经阶段。了解什么吸引了视觉注意力以及为什么会吸引视觉注意力可能具有重要的实际应用，例如在平板电脑，智能手机或计算机等设备上更好地设计动态，交互式视觉显示。 拟议的研究项目的目的是测试一组新的预测的影响，高层次的场景属性的注意力选择。一个主要的目标是严格测试的假设，任务无关的语义信息约束注意力的选择，直接作用于空间和对象为基础的表示：任务无关的对象，语义上最近看到的东西更有可能被出席。预测将使用真实世界的场景进行测试，并利用真实世界的对象。除了旨在理解与任务无关但语义启动的刺激对注意力产生侵入性影响的机制的严格行为实验外，研究人员还将使用神经成像方法来检查关于人类视觉系统中影响发生的假设。

项目成果

Task set induces dynamic reallocation of resources in visual short-term memory

任务集引起视觉短期记忆资源的动态重新分配

• DOI: 10.3758/s13423-016-1181-8
• 发表时间: 2017
• 期刊: Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
• 影响因子: 3.5
• 作者: Sheremata, Summer L.;Shomstein, Sarah
• 通讯作者: Shomstein, Sarah