Basic mechanisms of human visual attention

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Attention is the process whereby individuals select objects for conscious awareness. Understanding the basic mechanisms of attention is import for many day-to-day tasks such as driving and even searching for one's keys. My research program is built on the hypothesis that a complete understanding of attention requires considering both the environment and the observer. Currently, much is known about how attention is influenced by basic visual properties of objects and basic variations of task demands and these factors have been well represented in current models of attention. In contrast, relatively little is known about how attention is influenced by the characteristics of the whole embodied individual, including the physical, emotional and cognitive aspects of a person. Accordingly, the present research focuses on evaluating (1) how changes in an observer's physical state (fatigue), cognitive demands (distraction) and emotional state (mood) influence the deployment of visual attention and (2) how the meaning that an object has to an individual influences visual attention. The proposed research addresses these objectives by studying normal individuals as well as individuals with an unusual condition known as synaesthesia. In synaesthesia, ordinary stimuli elicit extraordinary conscious experiences. For example, people who experience a subtype of synaesthesia known as time-space synaesthesia experience units of time (e.g., months of the year) as occupying specific spatial location outside of their bodies. By studying how basic attentional processes might depend on the complex relationship between the environment and the observer, the proposed research has the potential to change the way that people conceptualize and study attention. In addition, the proposed research on fatigue, distraction and mood will have direct bearing on countless situations of attentional orienting in everyday life (e.g., airport security screening, driving). The findings from the proposed studies will thus provide much needed data to guide policy making in many important safety and security sectors.