How do concepts and perceptual simulations affect visual attention

选择性地注意到视野的某些部分，从而为随后的感知和认知处理确定特定视觉信息的优先顺序，这对人类成功地与复杂的视觉环境互动至关重要。传统上，注意选择被认为是通过外源性注意力转移，即外部事件(例如，线索的开始)会条件反射地将注意力“拉”到外围位置，或者通过内源性注意力转移，即注意力被自愿地“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实现，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转移，有助于在空间兼容的位置检测目标(Chasteen等人，2010年)。然而，其他研究表明，当目标出现在通常与宾语词相关的位置时，对目标的反应受到抑制(Estes等人，2008年)。借鉴知觉符号理论(PST；Barsalou，1999)，Estes等人。研究表明，对象词不仅将注意力定向到相关的空间位置，而且还触发了对对象的知觉模拟，从而激活了与对这些对象的实际知觉相关的神经机制。因此，在与对象相关联的位置处的目标的识别被减慢，因为在可以完成目标识别之前必须发生对模拟对象的抑制。拟议研究的目的是确定对物体和概念的知觉模拟何时促进或抑制相关空间位置上的目标的加工。为了实现这一点，我提出了两个相互关联的研究计划，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(即对象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起到平衡作用。

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.