Basic mechanisms of human visual attention

注意力是个体选择对象进行有意识意识的觉察的过程。 理解注意力的基本机制对于许多日常任务都很重要，比如开车，甚至找钥匙。 我的研究计划是建立在这样一个假设之上的：对注意力的完整理解需要同时考虑环境和观察者。目前，很多人都知道注意力是如何受到物体的基本视觉特性和任务要求的基本变化的影响，这些因素已经很好地体现在当前的注意力模型。 相比之下，人们对注意力如何受到整个具身个体特征的影响知之甚少，包括一个人的身体，情感和认知方面。因此，本研究的重点是评估（1）观察者的身体状态（疲劳），认知需求（分心）和情绪状态（情绪）的变化如何影响视觉注意力的部署，以及（2）物体对个体的意义如何影响视觉注意力。这项拟议中的研究通过研究正常个体以及具有称为通感的不寻常状况的个体来实现这些目标。 在通感中，普通的刺激会引发非凡的意识体验。 例如，经历被称为时空联觉的联觉亚型的人经历时间单位（例如，一年中的几个月）占据身体外部的特定空间位置。通过研究基本的注意过程如何依赖于环境和观察者之间的复杂关系，拟议的研究有可能改变人们概念化和研究注意力的方式。 此外，拟议中的关于疲劳、分心和情绪的研究将直接影响日常生活中无数的注意力定向情况（例如，机场安检、驾驶）。 因此，拟议研究的结果将提供急需的数据，以指导许多重要安全和安保部门的决策。

Attention is the process whereby individuals select objects for conscious awareness. Understanding the basic mechanisms of attention is import for many day-to-day tasks such as driving and even searching for one's keys. My research program is built on the hypothesis that a complete understanding of attention requires considering both the environment and the observer. Currently, much is known about how attention is influenced by basic visual properties of objects and basic variations of task demands and these factors have been well represented in current models of attention. In contrast, relatively little is known about how attention is influenced by the characteristics of the whole embodied individual, including the physical, emotional and cognitive aspects of a person. Accordingly, the present research focuses on evaluating (1) how changes in an observer's physical state (fatigue), cognitive demands (distraction) and emotional state (mood) influence the deployment of visual attention and (2) how the meaning that an object has to an individual influences visual attention. The proposed research addresses these objectives by studying normal individuals as well as individuals with an unusual condition known as synaesthesia. In synaesthesia, ordinary stimuli elicit extraordinary conscious experiences. For example, people who experience a subtype of synaesthesia known as time-space synaesthesia experience units of time (e.g., months of the year) as occupying specific spatial location outside of their bodies. By studying how basic attentional processes might depend on the complex relationship between the environment and the observer, the proposed research has the potential to change the way that people conceptualize and study attention. In addition, the proposed research on fatigue, distraction and mood will have direct bearing on countless situations of attentional orienting in everyday life (e.g., airport security screening, driving). The findings from the proposed studies will thus provide much needed data to guide policy making in many important safety and security sectors.