Mechanisms of attentional orienting

注意调节对传入感官信息的处理，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，我们有兴趣发现人类如何注意象征性的视觉信息（例如，箭头方向，手指点）。最近的研究，包括我自己的研究，都表明，常见的符号会影响注意力定向，即使它们与手头的任务无关。然而，这些数据很难在注意过程的主流框架内解释，因为结果不适合两种公认的注意选择类别：反射性和意志定向。提出的研究旨在处理和解决理论与最近数据之间的不一致。提出的建议是，这种差异源于行为相关刺激吸引注意力的独特而系统的方式。这一观点将通过以可预测的方式改变影响经典注意力效应的因素，并检查它们对由行为相关线索引起的定向的影响来验证。为了发现与行为相关的线索如何影响行为和神经活动，将进行手动和眼动表现以及脑电活动的检查。概述了三个研究项目。项目1和项目2的研究将考察刺激空间信息（项目1）和时间信息（项目2）对手动和眼动行为以及潜在神经活动的影响。项目3的研究将通过研究行为相关线索的发展过程来研究其起源。总之，这些研究的结果将揭示注意力是否只被行为相关的视觉信息所吸引。如果是这样，这些数据将有助于扩展当前关注的理论框架和制定可行的未来研究假设。最后，由于拟议的研究计划应用多种跨学科的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.