Individual Differences in Attention: Behavioural and Electrophysiological Investigations

注意力的个体差异：行为和电生理学调查

• 批准号: 249823-2013
• 负责人: Arnell, Karen
• 金额: $ 2.11万
• 依托单位: Brock University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=594348
• 关键词: Individual; Differences; Attention; Behavioural; Electrophysiological

In our day-to-day lives multiple events require our attention, yet our attention is limited in terms of how much information we can attend to at any given time. Consequently, although we may try to perform two tasks at once (e.g., talking on a cellular phone while driving), this often leads to poorer performance on one or both tasks. Also, our attention may be captured by stimuli that are irrelevant to the task at hand (e.g., an eye-catching billboard while driving). Therefore, appropriate control and allocation of attention are critical to successful and safe task performance. Recently, researchers, including myself, have begun to investigate individual differences in the ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously and to prevent our attention from being captured by task-irrelevant stimuli. For example, work from my lab has shown that there are reliable individual differences in the magnitude of dual-task attention costs in a computerized task, and that these attention costs can be predicted by various dispositional, cognitive, and EEG measures. The goal of this grant is to better understand individual differences in attentional performance. I will examine whether there are reliable individual differences in the degree and nature of attention capture across a variety of attention capture tasks, and if so, whether these individual differences are related across various attention capture tasks such that some people can be said to be more susceptible, generally, to having their attention captured. In addition I will examine whether individual differences in attention capture are related to individual differences in dual-task attention and whether these can be predicted by individual differences in everyday multi-tasking behaviour, working memory, attentional investment and/or cognitive control. A series of experiments will also ask 'At what stage of processing do reliable individual differences in cognitive investment begin?' I will also examine the degree to which individuals are aware of their ability to multi-task or to avoid attentional distraction and whether they modulate their everyday behaviour according to their abilities. Ultimately, this research will inform how and why individuals differ in their abilities to successfully navigate the attentional demands of everyday life.

在我们的日常生活中，许多事件需要我们的注意力，然而我们的注意力是有限的，因为我们可以在任何给定的时间内关注多少信息。因此，尽管我们可能会尝试同时执行两项任务（例如，开车时打电话），但这通常会导致其中一项或两项任务的表现较差。此外，我们的注意力可能会被与手头任务无关的刺激所吸引（例如，开车时引人注目的广告牌）。因此，适当的控制和分配注意力是成功和安全执行任务的关键。最近，包括我在内的研究人员开始研究同时执行多项任务的能力的个体差异，以及防止我们的注意力被与任务无关的刺激捕获的能力。例如，我实验室的工作表明，在计算机化任务中，双任务注意成本的大小存在可靠的个体差异，这些注意成本可以通过各种性格、认知和脑电图测量来预测。这项拨款的目的是为了更好地了解注意力表现的个体差异。我将研究在各种注意力捕获任务中，注意力捕获的程度和性质是否存在可靠的个体差异，如果存在，这些个体差异是否与各种注意力捕获任务相关，以至于有些人通常可以说更容易被注意力捕获。此外，我将研究注意力捕获的个体差异是否与双任务注意力的个体差异有关，以及这些差异是否可以通过日常多任务行为、工作记忆、注意力投资和/或认知控制的个体差异来预测。一系列的实验也会问“认知投资中可靠的个体差异是从什么阶段开始的？”我还将研究个人对自己多任务处理能力或避免注意力分散能力的意识程度，以及他们是否会根据自己的能力调节自己的日常行为。最终，这项研究将告诉人们如何以及为什么个人在成功驾驭日常生活的注意力需求方面的能力不同。