Understanding conceptual cueing

为了使人类成功地与复杂的视觉环境互动，我们必须优先考虑视觉信息，以便后续的感知和认知处理。选择性地关注视野部分的能力对于这种优先排序至关重要，最近的研究表明，注意力定向可能通过暴露于包含隐含空间意义的概念线索来完成。这些线索（如“魔鬼”、“帽子”、“快乐”）激活了内部空间表征，暴露在这些线索中，会对空间相容位置的周边目标产生更快的反应。例如，我的实验室的工作显示了在空间兼容位置对各种概念线索的促进作用，包括具有隐含方向的单词（boots; Gozli, Pratt, Martin, god”；Chasteen, burzy, Gozli, Chasteen, Taylor, Lam, Chasteen），我们通过各种情境遇到它们，无论是通过音乐或与他人交谈的听觉线索，还是通过媒体的视觉线索。因此，概念线索可以通过多种方式触发，然后影响我们在视觉环境中参与和反应的内容。

In order for humans to successfully interact with our complex visual environments, we must prioritize visual information for subsequent perceptual and cognitive processing. The ability to selectively attend to portions of the visual field is vital for this prioritization, and recent research has shown that attentional orienting may be accomplished through exposure to conceptual cues that hold implicit spatial meaning. Such cues (e.g., devil', hat', joy') activate internal spatial representations and exposure to them produces faster responses to peripheral targets at spatially-compatible locations. For example, work from my laboratory has shown facilitation effects at spatially compatible locations for a variety of conceptual cues, including words with implicit direction (boots'; Gozli, Pratt, Martin, god”; Chasteen, Burdzy, Gozli, Chasteen, Taylor, Lam, Chasteen, we encounter them through a variety of contexts, whether through aural cues from music or conversation with others, or visual cues through media. Thus, conceptual cues can be triggered in a number of ways and then subsequently influence what we attend and respond to in our visual environment. In the proposed research I aim to make significant advances in understanding the link between conceptual cues and visual attention through rigorously testing two propositions. The first proposition is that the internal spatial representations that conceptual cues activate causes visual attention to be oriented to the corresponding region of space in the visual field, and this unique shift in attention has properties of exogenous attention (it happens automatically) and endogenous attention (it is internally driven). I will test this assumption in three subprograms of research. The second proposition I will test is that the internal spatial representation activated by conceptual cues is flexible, varying across time (short-term) and individuals (long-term). I will examine this proposition in two subprograms of research. Testing these two propositions will result in a more complete understanding of how the processing of conceptual information (which occurs throughout our daily experiences) influences what information from the visual field is selected for further processing. This is important to know, as the visual information we select to process is an important determinant of our current and future behaviour.