How do concepts and perceptual simulations affect visual attention

选择性地关注视野部分的能力，从而优先考虑特定的视觉信息以进行后续的感知和认知处理，对于人类成功地与复杂的视觉环境互动至关重要。传统上，注意力选择被认为是通过外源性的注意力转移来完成的，即外部事件（如提示的出现）会反射性地将注意力“拉”到外围位置，或者通过内源性的注意力转移来完成，即注意力会被有意识地“推”到外围位置。然而，最近的研究表明，注意力定向也可以通过暴露于激活内部空间表征的线索来完成，例如对象词（例如，帽子，靴子）或抽象概念（例如，上帝，魔鬼）。例如，我的实验室的工作表明，一些具有空间隐喻的抽象概念会产生注意力的转移，从而促进在空间兼容位置检测目标（Chasteen et al., 2010）。然而，其他研究表明，当目标出现在通常与目标词相关的位置时，对目标的反应受到抑制（Estes et al., 2008）。根据知觉符号理论（PST; Barsalou, 1999）， Estes等人认为，客体词不仅会将注意力导向相关的空间位置，而且还会触发对客体的感知模拟，从而激活与这些客体的实际感知相关的神经机制。因此，在与目标相关的位置上识别目标的速度会减慢，因为在完成目标识别之前必须对模拟对象进行抑制。本研究的目的是确定物体和概念的感知模拟何时促进或抑制相关空间位置上目标的处理。为了实现这一目标，我提出了两个相互关联的研究项目，其中我将确定a)目标加工的性质（识别与检测）和b)刺激的性质（即物体或概念与目标刺激之间的特征重叠程度）如何在促进和抑制之间取得平衡。

The ability to selectively attend to portions of the visual field, thus prioritizing specific visual information for subsequent perceptual and cognitive processing, is critical for humans to successfully interact with our complex visual environments. Traditionally, attentional selection was thought to be accomplished either through exogenous shifts of attention, where an external event (e.g., onset of a cue) would reflexively "pull" attention to a peripheral location, or through endogenous shifts of attention, where attention would be volitionally "pushed" to a peripheral location. Recent research has suggested, however, that attention orienting may also be accomplished through exposure to cues that activate internal spatial representations, such as object words (e.g., hat, boot) or abstract concepts (e.g., God, Devil). For example, work from my laboratory has shown that some abstract concepts that have spatial metaphors generate shifts of attention that facilitate detection of targets at spatially compatible locations (Chasteen et al., 2010). Other research, however, has shown that responses to targets are inhibited when they appear at a location typically associated with an object word (Estes et al., 2008). Drawing on Perceptual Symbols Theory (PST; Barsalou, 1999), Estes et al. suggest that not only do object words orient attention to associated spatial locations, but they also trigger perceptual simulations of the objects which activate the neural mechanisms related to the actual perception of those objects. Thus, identification of targets at the locations associated with the objects is slowed because inhibition of the simulated objects must occur before target identification can be completed. The purpose of the proposed research is to determine when perceptual simulations of objects and concepts facilitate or inhibit processing of targets at associated spatial locations. To accomplish this, I propose two inter-related programs of research in which I will determine how a) the nature of target processing (identification vs. detection) and b) the nature of the stimuli (i.e., degree of featural overlap between objects or concepts and a target stimulus) tip the balance between facilitation and inhibition.