Understanding conceptual cueing

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

In order for humans to successfully interact with our complex visual environments, we must prioritize visual information for subsequent perceptual and cognitive processing. The ability to selectively attend to portions of the visual field is vital for this prioritization, and recent research has shown that attentional orienting may be accomplished through exposure to conceptual cues that hold implicit spatial meaning. Such cues (e.g., ‘devil’, ‘hat’, ‘joy’) activate internal spatial representations and exposure to them produces faster responses to peripheral targets at spatially-compatible locations. For example, work from my laboratory has shown facilitation effects at spatially compatible locations for a variety of conceptual cues, including words with implicit direction (‘boots’; Gozli, Pratt, Martin, & Chasteen, 2015), and words referring to religion (“god”; Chasteen, Burdzy, & Pratt, 2010), mood (‘happy’; Gozli, Chasteen, & Pratt, 2013), or self-esteem (‘proud’; Taylor, Lam, Chasteen, & Pratt, 2015). Although my lab and others have demonstrated the generalizability of cueing effects for different types of concepts, there is still much to be learned regarding the fundamental processes that determine how conceptual cues operate. Furthering this understanding is critical, because conceptual cues are ubiquitous – we encounter them through a variety of contexts, whether through aural cues from music or conversation with others, or visual cues through media. Thus, conceptual cues can be triggered in a number of ways and then subsequently influence what we attend and respond to in our visual environment.