Guidance of attention by task-irrelevant information

注意选择是一种机制，通过这种机制，构成我们环境的感官信息被选择用于进一步，详细和更有效的处理。考虑到被关注的信息是由大脑特权，理解和预测什么信息被授予大脑处理成为一个重要的奋进。有人认为，显著事件（与周围环境非常不同的事件）以及与当前目标相关的信息（即，任务相关）被授予这样的访问权限。目前的工作旨在扩展这个简单的概念，注意定向，以测试的假设，注意选择可以取决于其他因素的显着性和任务相关性。更好地理解决定注意力选择如何在场景中分布的关键因素可以用于各种应用领域，例如：交互式和人体工程学面板的设计（例如，汽车仪表板、仪表板、飞机驾驶舱、空中交通管制监视器）;从培训驾驶员和机器操作员到安全人员的跨多个行业的增强的培训计划（例如，从机场行李检查员）到神经科医生阅读X光片以寻找癌症证据;以及为患有各种注意力障碍（注意力缺陷障碍、视觉空间忽视等）的人制定新的有益康复方案。鉴于获得的关于场景的突出和任务相关方面如何有助于注意力分配的知识的临界质量，探索环境的任务无关属性约束注意力分配的各种方式的时机已经成熟。建议的研究计划测试一组新的预测任务无关的属性的场景的影响，注意力的选择。我们的目标是严格测试的假设，任务无关的信息（如语义，启示，大小，诊断），通过直接作用于空间和对象的表征，约束注意选择。虽然过去大量的研究表明，相关信息约束注意力的选择，我们问一个更根本的问题，是否不同类型的任务无关的信息冲击注意力控制，即使不直接相关的当前目标。 预测将在真实的世界场景中进行测试，并利用真实的世界对象。这两个，行为概况（与使用各种心理物理学和眼动技术）以及神经基础的这一机制（通过采用神经成像技术），将被检查。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

Attentional selection is a mechanism by which sensory information that makes up our environment is selected for further, detailed, and more efficient processing. Given that attended information is privileged by the brain, understanding and predicting what information is granted access to brain processing becomes an important endeavor. It has been argued that salient events (those that are very different from the surrounding environment) as well as information that is related to the current goal (i.e., task-relevant) are granted such access. The current work aims to extend this arguably simple notion of attentional orienting, to test the hypothesis that attentional selection can depend on may factors other than salience and task relevance. A better understanding of critical factors that determine how attentional selection is distributed in a scene could be used in various applied fields such as: design of interactive and ergonomic panels (e.g., car dashboards, instrumental panels, airplane cockpits, air traffic control monitors); enhanced training programs across multiple industries ranging from training drivers and machine operators to security personnel (e.g., airport baggage screeners) to neurologists reading X-rays for evidence of cancer; and developing new beneficial rehabilitative programs for persons suffering from various attentional disorders (Attention Deficit Disorder, visuo-spatial neglect, etc.).Given a critical mass of knowledge acquired on how salient and task-relevant aspects of the scene contribute to attentional allocation, the time is ripe to probe various ways in which task-irrelevant properties of the environment constrain attentional allocation. The proposed research program tests a set of novel predictions regarding the influence of task-irrelevant properties of the scene to attentional selection. Our goal is to rigorously test the hypothesis that task-irrelevant information (such as semantics, affordances, size, diagnosticity), constrains attentional selection by directly acting on spatial and object representations. While extensive past research has demonstrated that relevant information constrains attentional selection, we ask a more fundamental question whether different types of task-irrelevant information impinge on attentional control even when not directly relevant to the current goal. Predictions will be tested in real world scenes, and by utilizing real world objects. Both, behavioral profile (with the use of various psychophysics and eye-movement techniques) as well as the neural underpinnings of this mechanism (by employing neuroimaging techniques), will be examined.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.