Eye movements as implicit measures of attention in addiction

注意环境中相关信息而忽略不相关信息的能力对我们的生存至关重要。不幸的是，在某些情况下，同样的选择性注意过程会对我们的生活产生负面影响。成瘾行为就是这种负面影响的一个例子。例如，酗酒者喜欢关注环境中与酒精有关的线索，而不是其他重要信息，这一事实有助于维持他的问题行为。为了研究这种效应，研究人员通常使用结果不受个人控制的内隐测量，以避免他或她对结果的主观影响。最常用的内隐测量也有一个重要的不便之处：它们要求个人执行一项人为的任务（即“发现差异”的活动）。由于人类在日常生活中处理信息时通常不会执行任务，因此这些人工任务的结果可能并不代表我们自然的注意力过程。解决这个问题的一种方法是使用更类似于自然探索的隐式测量。这可以通过使用测量个人眼球运动的设备来完成。在本研究方案中，通过眼动监测装置，将场景呈现在计算机屏幕上，参与者将自由观察所呈现的图像。与自然情况相比，它将使我们能够更好地了解一个人在复杂场景的不同部分关注什么，在哪里，何时以及多长时间。例如，当一个酗酒者被呈现在一个酒吧场景中时，他会花多少时间在一瓶酒上。另一个衡量兴趣的例子是，他会多快地把注意力从瓶子上移开。将对有成瘾问题的参与者和不受这些问题影响的参与者以及不同类型的成瘾（即，香烟、酒精和赌博）。这项研究计划的主要目标是帮助更好地理解在自然主义情境中观察到的注意机制，以确保当前的成瘾注意模型提供了对问题的最准确描述。

The ability to pay attention to relevant information in our environment while ignoring irrelevant information is essential for our survival. Unfortunately, in some situations, the same selective attentional process can have negative effects on our lives. An example of this negative impact is observed in addictive behaviours. For instance, the fact that an alcoholic favours to pay attention to alcohol-related cues in the environment rather than to other vital information contributes to maintain his problematic behaviours. To study this effect, researchers typically use implicit measures for which outcomes are not controlled by the individual to avoid his or her subjective influence at that outcome. The most commonly used implicit measures also have an important inconvenience: they require the individual to perform an artificial task (i.e. a "spot-the-difference" activity). Since humans do not usually perform tasks while they are processing information in their day-to-day life, the results from these artificial tasks might not represent our natural attentional processes. A way to address this problem is to use an implicit measure more similar to natural exploration. This can be done by using equipment that measures an individual's eye movements. In this research proposal, with an eye movement monitoring device, scenes will be presented on a computer screen and participants will freely observe the presented images. Comparably to a natural situation, it will allow us to better understand what, where, when, and how long an individual pays attention to different parts of a complex scene. For example, how much time does a heavy drinker spend on bottles of alcohol when he is presented a bar scene. Another example of a measure of interest is how quickly he would disengage his attention from the bottle. These measures will be compared for participants with addictive problems and participants who are not affected by these problems as well as between different types of addiction (i.e., to cigarettes, alcohol, and gambling). The main goal of this research program is to help better understand attentional mechanisms oberved in a naturalistic situation in order to assure that current models of attention in addiction provide the most accurate description of the problem.