Mechanisms of attentional orienting

注意力调节对传入的感觉信息的处理，并调节对适当目标和反应的选择。在我的实验室里，我们研究注意力如何影响复杂的日常行为。例如，我们感兴趣的是发现人类如何注意符号视觉信息(例如，箭头方向、指点)。最近的研究，包括我自己的研究表明，共同的符号影响注意定向，即使它们与手头的任务无关。然而，这些数据很难在主流的注意过程框架内解释，因为结果不符合两个公认的注意选择类别：反射性和意志性定向。拟议的研究旨在解决该理论与最近的数据之间的不一致。提出的建议是，这种差异是由行为相关刺激吸引注意力的独特但系统的方式引起的。这一想法将通过改变以可预测的方式影响经典注意效果的因素，并检查它们对由行为相关线索引发的定向的影响来检验。为了发现与行为相关的线索如何影响行为和神经活动，将进行体力和眼球运动表现以及大脑电活动的检查。概述了三个研究计划。方案1和方案2中的研究将检验刺激的空间信息(方案1)和时间信息(方案2)对体力和眼动行为以及潜在神经活动的影响。计划3中提出的研究将通过检查行为相关线索的发展进程来探索其起源。总之，这些研究的结果将揭示注意力是否与行为相关的视觉信息独一无二地联系在一起。如果是这样的话，这些数据将有助于扩展当前关注的理论框架，并制定可行的未来研究假设。最后，由于拟议的研究计划应用了多种跨学科方法来解决一个及时的理论问题，它将促进创造特殊的学生培训机会。

Attention modulates processing of incoming sensory information and regulates selection of appropriate goals and responses. In my lab, we study how attention influences complex everyday behaviors. For example, we are interested in discovering how humans pay attention to symbolic visual information (e.g., arrow direction, finger point). Recent studies, including my own, demonstrate that common symbols influence attentional orienting, even when they are irrelevant for the task at hand. However, these data are difficult to explain within the prevailing framework of attentional processes, as the results do not fit in either of the two well-established categories of attentional selection: reflexive and volitional orienting. The proposed studies are aimed at addressing and resolving this inconsistency between the theory and the recent data. The proposal put forward is that this discrepancy arises from the unique but systematic ways that behaviorally relevant stimuli engage attention. This idea will be tested by varying the factors that influence classic attentional effects in predictable ways and examining their effect on orienting elicited by behaviorally relevant cues. To discover how behaviorally relevant cues affect behavior and neural activity, examinations of manual and oculomotor performances as well as brain electrical activity will be performed. Three programs of research are outlined. The studies in Programs 1 and 2 will examine the effects of the stimulus spatial information (Program 1) and temporal information (Program 2) on manual and oculomotor behavior and underlying neural activity. The studies proposed in Program 3 will investigate the origins of orienting to behaviorally relevant cues by examining their developmental progression. Together, the results of these studies will reveal whether attention is uniquely engaged by behaviorally relevant visual information. If so, these data will facilitate expansions of the current theoretical frameworks of attention and the formulation of viable future research hypotheses. Finally, because the proposed program of research applies multiple interdisciplinary methodologies to address a timely theoretical question, it will promote the creation of exceptional student training opportunities.