Investigating the nature of spatial codes for different modes of Simon tasks: Evidence from congruency sequence effects and delta functions.

Simon effects have been observed to arise from different modes of spatial information (e.g., physical location, arrow direction, and location word). The present study investigated whether different modes of spatial information elicit a unitary set of spatial codes when triggering a spatially corresponding response code. A pair of two different Simon tasks was presented in alternation: location- and arrow-based Simon tasks in Experiments 1 and 2, word- and location-based Simon tasks in Experiment 3, and arrow- and word-based Simon tasks in Experiment 4. Responses were collected using unimanual aimed-movement responses. Cross-task congruency sequence effects (CSEs) were found in Experiments 1 and 2, indicating a shared set of spatial codes between physical locations and arrow directions. Conversely, the absence of CSEs in Experiment 3 suggested that physical locations and location words elicited different sets of spatial codes. In Experiment 4, a CSE was evident in the arrow-based Simon task but not in the word-based one, implying an overlap in the spatial attributes of arrow directions with those of location words. Distributional analyses of the Simon effects revealed that different modes of spatial information yielded distinct temporal patterns of its activation and dissipation, implying quantitative differences in the Simon effects. The cross-comparisons of the CSE and delta function data indicated that the quantitative similarities in spatial modes did not correspond to the qualitative similarities, suggesting a crucial finding that each set of data reflects different aspects of the nature of the spatial codes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Object-based suppression in target search but not in distractor inhibition.

The present study investigated the effect of object representation on attentional priority regarding distractor inhibition and target search processes while the statistical regularities of singleton distractor location were biased. A color singleton distractor appeared more frequently at one of six stimulus locations, called the 'high-probability location,' to induce location-based suppression. Critically, three objects were presented, each of which paired two adjacent stimuli in a target display by adding background contours (Experiment 1) or using perceptual grouping (Experiments 2 and 3). The results revealed that attention capture by singleton distractors was hardly modulated by objects. In contrast, target selection was impeded at the location in the object containing the high-probability location compared to an equidistant location in a different object. This object-based suppression in target selection was evident when object-related features were parts of task-relevant features. These findings suggest that task-irrelevant objects modulate attentional suppression. Moreover, different features are engaged in determining attentional priority for distractor inhibition and target search processes.

Feature-based attentional control for distractor suppression.

To investigate whether attentional suppression is merely a byproduct of target facilitation or a result of independent mechanisms for distractor suppression, the present study examined whether attentional suppression takes place when target facilitation hardly occurs using a spatial cueing paradigm. Participants searched for target letters that were not red, i.e., a negative color. On each trial, a target color was randomly chosen among 12 colors to prevent establishing attentional control for target colors and to reduce intertrial priming for target colors. Immediately before a target display, a noninformative spatial cue was presented at one of the possible target locations. The cue was rendered in a negative color, which was to be ignored, to detect targets or the reference color, which was never presented for target and non-target letters. Experiment 1 showed that negative color cues captured attention less than reference color cues, suggesting feature-based attentional suppression. The suppression effect was replicated when the temporal interval between the onsets of the cue and target displays was reduced in Experiments 2 and 3, suggesting proactive suppression. Experiment 3 directly confirmed no attentional control settings for target colors and intertrial priming. These findings suggest that distractor features can guide attention at the pre-attentive stage when target features are not used to attend to targets.

Reactive control in suicide ideators and attempters: An examination of the congruency sequence effect in cognitive and emotional Simon tasks.

Reactive control is the cognitive ability to adjust thoughts and behaviors when encountering conflict. We investigated how this ability to manage conflict and stress distinguishes suicidal from nonsuicidal individuals. The hypothesis was that suicidal individuals would show poorer reactive control when faced with conflict generated by emotional than neutral stimuli. Hence, individuals with a lifetime history of suicide ideation or attempt and nonsuicidal controls were tested in cognitive and emotional Simon tasks. We examined the congruency sequence effect (CSE) in the Simon tasks as an indication of the efficiency of reactive control in resolving conflict. Whereas controls demonstrated significant CSEs in both tasks, suicide attempters showed a significant CSE in the cognitive task but not in the emotional task. Suicide ideators, on the other hand, displayed marginally significant CSEs in both tasks. Comparing groups with pairwise comparison demonstrated that the difference in CSE was significant only in the emotional task between attempters and controls. Our findings of attempters' inefficiency in adjusting reactive control during the emotional task reflect cognitive inflexibility in coping with conflicting situations during which suicidal individuals become vulnerable to suicide attempts in states of negative emotion.

The congruency sequence effect of the Simon task in a cross-modality context.

One of the prime measures of cognitive control is the congruency sequence effect (CSE), which refers to a reduced congruency effect following incongruent trials compared to congruent trials. Some researchers have argued that the conflict resolution process exerts its effect at the level of whole task-set, whereas others have argued that the control process applies to parts of a task-set. The present study examined whether the sequential modulation of the congruency effect transfers across two tasks even when they are highly distinguished by different stimulus sensory modalities. Participants performed auditory horizontal and visual vertical Simon tasks by using unimanual aimed movements. The cross-task CSE was obtained between the auditory and visual Simon tasks when the target modality was easily predicted in Experiment 1 and when the auditory and visual tasks were further distinguished by different task-relevant stimulus dimensions in Experiment 2. The results were replicated in a task-switching context in Experiment 3. These results indicate that cognitive control exerts its effect at a level of a specific component of a task-set instead of the level of a whole task-set itself. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Cortical representation of musical pitch in event-related potentials.

Neural coding of auditory stimulus frequency is well-documented; however, the cortical signals and perceptual correlates of pitch have not yet been comprehensively investigated. This study examined the temporal patterns of event-related potentials (ERP) in response to single tones of pitch chroma, with an assumption that these patterns would be more prominent in musically-trained individuals than in non-musically-trained individuals. Participants with and without musical training (N = 20) were presented with seven notes on the C major scale (C4, D4, E4, F4, G4, A4, and B4), and whole-brain activities were recorded. A linear regression analysis between the ERP amplitude and the seven notes showed that the ERP amplitude increased or decreased as the frequency of the pitch increased. Remarkably, these linear correlations were anti-symmetric between the hemispheres. Specifically, we found that ERP amplitudes of the left and right frontotemporal areas decreased and increased, respectively, as the pitch frequency increased. Although linear slopes were significant in both groups, the musically-trained group exhibited marginally steeper slope, and their ERP amplitudes were most discriminant for frequency of tone of pitch at earlier latency than in the non-musically-trained group (~ 460 ms vs ~ 630 ms after stimulus onset). Thus, the ERP amplitudes in frontotemporal areas varied according to the pitch frequency, with the musically-trained participants demonstrating a wider range of amplitudes and inter-hemispheric anti-symmetric patterns. Our findings may provide new insights on cortical processing of musical pitch, revealing anti-symmetric processing of musical pitch between hemispheres, which appears to be more pronounced in musically-trained people. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13534-023-00274-y.

Visual Complexity of Head-Up Display in Automobiles Modulates Attentional Tunneling.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate how the visual complexity of head-up displays (HUDs) influence the allocation of driver's attention in two separate visual domains (near and far domains). BACKGROUND: The types and amount of information displayed on automobile HUDs have increased. With limited human attention capacity, increased visual complexity in the near domain may lead to interference in the effective processing of information in the far domain. METHOD: Near-domain and far-domain vision were separately tested using a dual-task paradigm. In a simulated road environment, 62 participants were to control the speed of the vehicle (SMT; near domain) and manually respond to probes (PDT; far domain) simultaneously. Five HUD complexity levels including a HUD-absent condition were presented block-wise. RESULTS: Near domain performance was not modulated by the HUD complexity levels. However, the far domain detection accuracies were impaired as the HUD complexity level increased, with greater accuracy differences observed between central and peripheral probes. CONCLUSION: Increased HUD visual complexity leads to a biased deployment of driver attention toward the central visual field. Therefore, the formulation of HUD designs must be preceded by an in-depth investigation of the dynamics of human cognition. APPLICATION: To ensure driving safety, HUD designs should be rendered with minimal visual complexity by incorporating only essential information relevant to driving and removing driving-irrelevant or additional visual details.

Value-driven attention and associative learning models: a computational simulation analysis.

Value-driven attentional capture (VDAC) refers to a phenomenon by which stimulus features associated with greater reward value attract more attention than those associated with smaller reward value. To date, the majority of VDAC research has revealed that the relationship between reward history and attentional allocation follows associative learning rules. Accordingly, a mathematical implementation of associative learning models and multiple comparison between them can elucidate the underlying process and properties of VDAC. In this study, we implemented the Rescorla-Wagner, Mackintosh (Mac), Schumajuk-Pearce-Hall (SPH), and Esber-Haselgrove (EH) models to determine whether different models predict different outcomes when critical parameters in VDAC were adjusted. Simulation results were compared with experimental data from a series of VDAC studies by fitting two key model parameters, associative strength (V) and associability (α), using the Bayesian information criterion as a loss function. The results showed that SPH-V and EH- α outperformed other implementations of phenomena related to VDAC, such as expected value, training session, switching (or inertia), and uncertainty. Although V of models were sufficient to simulate VDAC when the expected value was the main manipulation of the experiment, α of models could predict additional aspects of VDAC, including uncertainty and resistance to extinction. In summary, associative learning models concur with the crucial aspects of behavioral data from VDAC experiments and elucidate underlying dynamics including novel predictions that need to be verified.

Loss aversion in the control of attention.

Loss aversion is a psychological bias where an increase in loss is perceived as being larger than an equivalent increase in gain. In the present study, two experiments were conducted to explore whether attentional control reflects loss aversion. Participants performed a visual search task. On each trial, a red target and a green target were presented simultaneously, and participants were free to search for either one. Participants always gained points when they searched for a gain color target (e.g., red). However, they gained or lost points when they searched for a gain-loss color target (e.g., green). In Experiment 1, the expected values of the gain color and the gain-loss color were equal. Therefore, for maximizing the reward, participants did not need to preferably search for a particular color. However, results showed that participants searched for the gain color target more than the gain-loss color target, suggesting stronger attentional control for the gain color than the gain-loss color. In Experiment 2, even though the expected value of the gain-loss color was greater than that of the gain color, attention was allocated to the gain color more than to the gain-loss color. The results imply that attentional control can operate in accordance with the loss aversion principle when the boundary conditions for loss aversion in a repeated binary decision-making task were met.

The modulation of value-driven attentional capture by exploration for reward information.

Previous studies on value-driven attentional capture (VDAC) have demonstrated that the uncertainty of reward value modulates attentional allocation via associative learning. However, it is unclear whether such attentional exploration is executed based on the amount of potential reward information available for refining value prediction or the absolute size of reward prediction error. The present study investigated the effects of reward information (information entropy) and prediction error (variance) on attentional bias while controlling for the influence of the strength of reward association. Participants were instructed to search for either a red or green target circle and respond to the line orientation within the target. Each target color was associated with reward contingencies with different levels of uncertainty. In Experiment 1, one color was paired with a single reward value (zero entropy and variance) and the other with multiple reward values (high entropy and variance). In Experiment 2, one color had a high-entropy, low-variance reward contingency and the other had the inverse. Attentional interference for distractors with high entropy was consistently greater than low or zero entropy distractors. In addition, in Experiment 3, when distractors with an identical level of variance were given, information entropy was observed to modulate the attentional bias toward distractors. Lastly, Experiment 4 revealed that distractors associated with contrasting levels of variance, while information entropy was kept identical, failed to modulate VDAC. These results indicate that value-based attention is primarily allocated to cues that provide maximal information about the reward outcomes and that information entropy is one of the key predictors mediating attentional exploration and associative learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

A Computer-Based Method for the Investigation of Human Behavior in the Iterative Chicken Game.

The present study develops an artificial agent that plays the iterative chicken game based on a computational model that describes human behavior in competitive social interactions in terms of fairness. The computational model we adopted in this study, named as the self-concept fairness model, decides the agent's action according to the evaluation of fairness of both opponent and self. We implemented the artificial agent in a computer program with a set of parameters adjustable by researchers. These parameters allow researchers to determine the extent to which the agent behaves aggressively or cooperatively. To demonstrate the use of the proposed method for the investigation of human behavior, we performed an experiment in which human participants played the iterative chicken game against the artificial agent. Participants were divided into two groups, each being informed to play with either a person or the computer. The behavioral analysis results showed that the proposed method can induce changes in the behavioral pattern of human players by changing the agent's behavioral pattern. Also, we found that participants tended to be more sensitive to fairness when they played with a human opponent than with a computer opponent. These results support that the artificial agent developed in this study will be useful to investigate human behavior in competitive social interactions.

Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Neural Dynamics in Theta Oscillations Related to the Inhibition of Habitual Behavior.

The human brain carries out cognitive control for the inhibition of habitual behaviors by suppressing some familiar but inappropriate behaviors instead of engaging specific goal-directed behavior flexibly in a given situation. To examine the characteristics of neural dynamics related to such inhibition of habitual behaviors, we used a modified rock-paper-scissors (RPS) task that consisted of a basic, a lose-, and a win-conditioned game. Spectral and phase synchrony analyses were conducted to examine the acquired electroencephalogram signals across the entire brain during all RPS tasks. Temporal variations in frontal theta power activities were directly in line with the stream of RPS procedures in accordance with the task conditions. The lose-conditioned RPS task gave rise to increases in the local frontal power and global phase-synchronized pairs of theta oscillations. The activation of the global phase-synchronized network preceded the activation of frontal theta power. These results demonstrate that the frontal regions play a pivotal role in the inhibition of habitual behaviors-stereotyped and ingrained stimulus-response mappings that have been established over time. This study suggests that frontal theta oscillations may be engaged during the cognitive inhibition of habitual behaviors and that these oscillations characterize the degree of cognitive load required to inhibit habitual behaviors.

A finer-grained search reveals no evidence of the attentional capture by to-be-ignored features.

The contingent capture account of involuntary attention claims that it is guided by top-down factors, such as volitional goals or task instructions. The contrasting rapid disengagement account holds that the contingent capture account relies on the spatial precueing paradigm, which is vulnerable to the elimination of the cue-validity effect through rapid attentional disengagement. In the present study, five experiments were conducted to examine whether a spatial cue presented in a target-defining or distractor-defining color that predicted the location of a subsequently presented target at the chance level involuntarily captures attention by measuring the cue-validity effect. Additionally, to examine the influence of cue-target compatibility as an alternative indicator of attentional capture, an object identical to or different from the target object was presented at the cued location in the cue display in all experiments. The results showed that the cue-validity effect and the cue-target compatibility effect were present only when the target-color cue was presented. The object of the target display presented at the location cued by the target color was recognized even on invalid trials. By contrast, the distractor color cue did not show any indication of attentional capture or postattentive inhibition. These results imply that preattentive selection and postattentive inhibition depend on top-down attentional control setting. Furthermore, the absence of a cue-validity effect with a distractor feature is not due to the inhibition of the cued location after attentional disengagement.

Cross-task congruency sequence effect without the contribution of multiple expectancy.

The confound-minimized cross-task design has been widely used to examine the characteristics of top-down cognitive control underlying the congruency sequence effect (CSE) without feature integration and contingency learning confounds. The present study reanalyzed our previous data obtained with the confound-minimized cross-task design, this time including the preceding congruency repetition type, to examine whether the cross-task CSE is confounded by feature integration from two-back (n-2) trials or multiple expectancies regarding the congruency and the congruency repetition type of the upcoming trial. As a result, the cross-task CSE interacted with the arbitrariness of S-R mapping or response mode regardless of the preceding congruency repetition type, indicating the contribution of top-down control triggered by conflict. Feature integration from n-2 trials, but not multiple expectancies, was found to have a lingering effect on the sequential modulation of the congruency effect between previous and current trials. However, because the influence of feature integration operated in opposite directions depending on the preceding congruency repetition type, the contribution of feature integration to the cross-task CSE can be minimized when the combined datasets of trials following a congruency repetition trial and those following a congruency alternation trial are analyzed. These findings are consistent with recent perspectives on cognitive control, which posit that top-down cognitive control and bottom-up feature integration operate independently to optimize task performance.

Eye Fixation-Related Potentials during Visual Search on Acquaintance and Newly-Learned Faces.

Searching familiar faces in the crowd may involve stimulus-driven attention by emotional significance, together with goal-directed attention due to task-relevant needs. The present study investigated the effect of familiarity on attentional processes by exploring eye fixation-related potentials (EFRPs) and eye gazes when humans searched for, among other distracting faces, either an acquaintance's face or a newly-learned face. Task performance and gaze behavior were indistinguishable for identifying either faces. However, from the EFRP analysis, after a P300 component for successful search of target faces, we found greater deflections of right parietal late positive potentials in response to newly-learned faces than acquaintance's faces, indicating more involvement of goal-directed attention in processing newly-learned faces. In addition, we found greater occipital negativity elicited by acquaintance's faces, reflecting emotional responses to significant stimuli. These results may suggest that finding a familiar face in the crowd would involve lower goal-directed attention and elicit more emotional responses.

The effects of induced and trait anxiety on the sequential modulation of emotional conflict.

The current study aimed to investigate whether induced anxiety, as well as trait anxiety, would lead to the failure of the regulation of emotional conflict. To measure the regulation of emotional conflict, the congruency sequence effect (CSE), which is a reduced effect of task-irrelevant distractor after incongruent trials compared to congruent trials, was observed while participants performed an emotional conflict task. In Experiment 1, participants performed the task in a safe context and a threatening context where a couple of electric shocks were given randomly on two consecutive days. In Experiment 2, participants performed the same task in either a safe or threatening context to avoid a potential carryover effect of the threat. The CSE observed in the safe context disappeared in the threatening context as well as in participants with high-trait anxiety level even without the threat. The findings imply that induced anxiety causes a failure of cognitive control that engenders the CSE in emotional congruency tasks. Moreover, such failure driven by participants' trait anxiety level might be a potential predisposing factor leading to anxiety disorders. Overall, these results suggest that induced anxiety, as well as trait anxiety, has an adverse impact on the sequential modulation of emotional conflict.

Uncertainty modulates value-driven attentional capture.

The majority of previous studies on the value modulation of attention have shown that the magnitude of value-driven attentional bias correlates with the strength of reward association. However, relatively little is known about how uncertainty affects value-based attentional bias. We investigated whether attentional capture by previously rewarded stimuli is modulated by the uncertainty of the learned value without the influence of the strength of reward association. Participants were instructed to identify the line orientation in the target color circle. Importantly, each target color was associated with a different level of uncertainty by tuning the variation in reward delivery (Experiment 1) or reward magnitude (Experiment 2). Attentional interference for uncertainty-related distractors was greater than that for certainty distractors in Experiments 1 and 2. In addition, uncertainty-induced attentional bias disappeared earlier than attentional bias for certainty. The study demonstrated that uncertainty modulates value-based attentional capture in terms of strength and persistence, even when the effect of expected value remains constant.

Response mode modulates the congruency sequence effect in spatial conflict tasks: evidence from aimed-movement responses.

The present study investigated how response mode determines the specificity of control responsible for the congruency sequence effect (CSE), especially when conflict arises from spatial dimensions. Horizontal and vertical Simon tasks were presented in turn, while response mode (Experiment 1) or task-relevant stimulus dimension (Experiment 2) was manipulated. All responses were made by aimed movements to make the relative salience of the horizontal and vertical dimensions equivalent regardless of response mode. The confound-minimized CSEs were significant only when the two tasks shared the same response mode, which did not vary as a function of task-relevant stimulus dimension. This result suggests that response mode determines the scope of control, as it reconfigures the representations of the task-irrelevant spatial dimensions (i.e., the horizontal and vertical dimensions), which is corroborated by distributional analyses. This response mode-specific control was also consistently found for the horizontal and vertical arrow versions of flanker-compatibility tasks in Experiment 3, in which conflict does not directly arise from the response dimension. Furthermore, the current findings revealed that the CSEs were more evident in movement times than in initiation times, which provides new insight on how control inhibits the response activated by a task-irrelevant stimulus dimension, especially at a motor level.

The role of attentional slippage in Stroop dilution.

The present study examined the cognitive locus of Stroop dilution using a psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm. Participants were asked to perform a tone discrimination task via a bimanual keypress response and a modified Stroop task via a vocal response serially as Task 1 and Task 2, respectively. In Task 2, a neutral word was added on half of the trials and no neutral word on the other half of the trials to observe the Stroop dilution effect. The amount of Stroop dilution, as well as the Stroop effect, was relatively constant across different stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOAs), which implies that Stroop dilution occurs due to the competition between a neutral word and a color word after a target color bar is selected to be processed further. These results indicate that focused attention plays an important role in the modulation of Stroop interference by the presence of a neutral word.