An action-observation method for studying social perception: a mini-review.

An important aspect of any social interaction involves inferring other people's mental states, intentions, and their likely next actions, by way of facial expression, body posture, eye gaze, and limb movements. An actor's production of actions during social interactions and the observer's perception of these actions are thus closely linked. In this review, we outline an action-observation methodology, which not only allows for separate analyses of production and perception, but also promotes the study of the dynamic interaction between these two sides of every social exchange. We review two lines of research that have benefited from its application. The first line focuses on individuals performing tasks alone and the observation of their actions by other individuals in order to make inferences about their attentional states. The second line of study focused on pairs of individuals performing collaborative tasks in naturalistic settings and the observation of these performances by other individuals. We offer several suggestions for how this methodology can be extended to improve on the limitations of the present studies, as well as some suggestions of how to use this methodology to venture into new territory. Our aim is to inspire future research applications of this methodology in order to advance our understanding of social action production and perception.

Cognitive health outcomes of fundamental motor skill applications in children through cooperative learning method.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has suggests that cooperative learning methods and the development of fundamental motor skills support children's cognitive development, and further studies covering various aspects are recommended. In this study, as an alternative to traditional physical education classes including fundamental motor skill activities, we investigated the impact of cooperative learning methods incorporating these skills on children's visual-motor integration and selective attention. METHODS: A total of 60 boy children in the 10-11 age range were included in the study. Groups; classical method (10.95 ± 0.58age), and cooperative learning group (10.91 ± 0.42age). The study spanned a total of 24 physical education class hours. While the classical method group continued to attend physical education lessons with an FMS-based prepared program for 8 weeks, cooperative learning group participated in an FMS-based program prepared according to the cooperative learning method (40min/3days/8weeks).At the beginning and end of the study, children underwent the Bender-Gestalt test and the d2 test of attention. RESULTS: Within-group pre-post test comparisons revealed improvement in visual-motor integration and selective attention for both the classical method and cooperative learning groups. In between-group post-test comparisons, the cooperative learning group demonstrated greater improvement in visual-motor integration and selective attention parameters compared to the classical method. CONCLUSION: The results support increasing the inclusion of fundamental motor skill activities in physical education classes and advocating for the use of cooperative learning methods in these classes. Enhancements in visual-motor integration and selective attention may contribute to children forming quality relationships, enjoying activities, learning stress management, and developing as a group.

The effect of object perception on event integration and segregation.

The perceptual system must integrate information from various points in time and space to interpret continuous sensory input into meaningful units, such as visual objects or events. To explore the relationship between the perception of spatial objects and temporal events, we modified the missing element task, a typical temporal integration task, by inserting a simple spatial object. The aim was to determine whether the perceptual processing of the object would have an impact on the frequency of temporal integration and segregation. Temporal integration was most successful when the missing element was located within the object, less successful when there was no object, and least successful when the missing element appeared outside the object. The advantage of the location of the missing element within the object was observed at display durations from 30 ms to 150 ms. Interestingly, the object provided the same benefit for integration and segregation despite their opposing perceptual demands. This study demonstrates the relationship that exists between the processing of temporal events and spatial objects, and shows how such spatial information can facilitate temporal integration.

The impact of maturation level, not chronological age, on attentional control: implications for sports injury prevention in female adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Non-contact injuries are highly prevalent among young athletes and occur particularly in situations that require fast decision making and divided attention. Administering relevant neurocognitive tests could help identify deficiencies in these cognitive abilities and thus potentially mitigate injury risk. However, processes such as selective attention and response inhibition might depend to some extent on the athlete's maturation stage. We aimed to examine the effect of maturation on selective visual attention and response inhibition among adolescent volleyball players. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 52 female adolescents (age 12.3 ± 2.1 years) performed an Eriksen Flankers task. Participants were divided into subgroups based on their estimated adult stature, using the Khamis & Roche method: Pre-pubertal (PRE; n = 13, age: 9.9 ± 1.3), early-puberty (EPUB; n = 7, age: 10.5 ± 0.6), mid-puberty (MPUB; n = 8, age: 12.6 ± 0.8) and late puberty (LPUB; n = 24, age: 14.1 ± 0.9). Analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) were performed on congruent and incongruent reaction times (RT), with corresponding success rates (% correct responses) as covariate. Flanker interference effect was tested using ANOVA. Correlations were further examined between the dependent variables and participants' chronological age. RESULTS: There was a significant group effect, with PRE demonstrating longer RT compared with LPUB (P < 0.001) for both congruent and incongruent RT. Moderate negative correlations were observed between age and RT (Rp = -0.695, Rp = -0.614 for congruent and incongruent RT, respectively) and low positive correlations between age and incongruent success rate (Rs = 0.318). Low to moderate correlations were also observed within the LPUB group for RT (Rp = -0.431--0.532) and success rate (negative Rs = -574 for congruent and positive Rs = 0.417 for incongruent). There were no group differences nor age associations with interference effect. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that information processing and selective visual attention are superior at late maturation compared with early maturation among female adolescents. The same cannot be said for response inhibition, which did not differ between maturation groups. Similar tendencies were observed with regards to chronological age, but not entirely explained by it. Maturation level, rather than chronological age, should guide practitioners during sport participation and injury prevention programs for young athletes, whose neurocognitive abilities are not yet fully developed, placing them at risk for non-contact injuries.

Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback Training of Selective Attention in Older Adults.

BACKGROUND: Selective attention declines with age, due to age-related functional changes in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). Real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rtfMRI) neurofeedback has been used in young adults to train volitional control of brain activity, including in dACC. METHODS: For the first time, this study used rtfMRI neurofeedback to train 19 young and 27 older adults in volitional up- or down-regulation of bilateral dACC during a selective attention task. RESULTS: Older participants in the up-regulation condition (experimental group) showed greater reward points and dACC BOLD signal across training sessions, reflective of neurofeedback training success; and faster reaction time and better response accuracy, suggesting behavioral benefits on selective attention. These effects were not observed for older participants in the down-regulation condition (inverse condition control group), supporting specificity of volitional dACC up-regulation training in older adults. These effects were, unexpectedly, also not observed for young participants in the up-regulation condition (age control group), perhaps due to a lack of motivation to continue the training. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide promising first evidence of functional plasticity in dACC in late life via rtfMRI neurofeedback up-regulation training, enhancing selective attention, and demonstrate proof of concept of rtfMRI neurofeedback training in cognitive aging.

Standardized Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) Extract Improves Short- and Long-Term Cognitive Performances in Healthy Older Adults: A Randomized, Double-Blind, and Placebo-Controlled Trial.

Cognitive decline, a common consequence of aging, detrimentally affects independence, physical activity, and social interactions. This decline encompasses various cognitive functions, including processing speed, memory, language, and executive functioning. This trial aimed to investigate, with a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial on 96 healthy older adults, the efficacy of once-daily 250 mg of a standardized grape (Vitis vinifera L.) juice extract (Cognigrape®) in improving short- and long-term cognitive functions. The results revealed significant improvements across multiple cognitive domains, notably immediate and delayed memory, visuospatial abilities, language, and attention, with improvements occurring within just 14 days, which continued to improve after 84 days of supplementation. The extract exhibited statistically significant enhancements in the Mini-Mental State Evaluation (MMSE), assessment of neuropsychological status (RBANS), "Esame Neuropsicologico Breve 2 (ENB-2), and Modified Bells Test (MBT) scores, with the latter test revealing a significant improvement in selective attention within just 90 min of the first dose. These positive results highlight the potential this natural grape extract has on improving cognitive function both acutely and chronically in a healthy aging population, which in turn supports a longer health span, at least cognitively.

Differential Impact of WM Load on Attention in Young Adults Versus Children and Adolescents.

Background: This study aimed to examine how concurrent working memory (WM) loads affect selective attention, and to explore developmental differences between young adults and children/adolescents aged 10 to 14 years. Methods: We employed a modified Stroop task with verbal or spatial WM loads to assess their impact on attention. Results: In adults, we found increased Stroop effects when WM load overlapped with target processing and decreased Stroop effects when WM load overlapped with distractor processing. Conversely, in children/adolescents, WM loads did not significantly impact target or distractor processing, indicating no change in Stroop effects under dual-task conditions. Interestingly, results from the correlational analyses revealed that as participants' ages increase, the interference effect under the WM load that shares resources with distractor processing in the attention task decreases. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the interaction between attention and WM differs across developmental stages. While adults showed distinctive effects of concurrent WM loads on attention processing depending on the cognitive resources utilized, children/adolescents failed to show the interaction between the two cognitive systems. Furthermore, a significant relationship between age and the effects of WM load on attention was observed, providing insights into the development of the interaction between WM and attention.

Sensory-motor tuning allows generic features of conspecific acoustic scenes to guide rapid, adaptive, call-timing responses in túngara frogs.

Male frogs court females from within crowded choruses, selecting for mechanisms allowing them to call at favourable times relative to the calls of rivals and background chorus noise. To accomplish this, males must continuously evaluate the fluctuating acoustic scene generated by their competitors for opportune times to call. Túngara frogs produce highly frequency- and amplitude-modulated calls from within dense choruses. We used similarly frequency- and amplitude-modulated playback tones to investigate the sensory basis of their call-timing decisions. Results revealed that different frequencies present throughout this species' call differed in their degree of call inhibition, and that lower-amplitude tones were less inhibitory. Call-timing decisions were then driven by fluctuations in inhibition arising from underlying frequency- and amplitude-modulation patterns, with tone transitions that produced steeper decreases in inhibition having higher probabilities of triggering calls. Interactions between the varied behavioural sensitivities to different conspecific call frequencies revealed here, and the stereotyped amplitude- and frequency-modulation patterns present in this species' calls, can explain previously surprising patterns observed in túngara frog choruses. This highlights the importance of understanding the specific sensory drivers underpinning conspecific signalling interactions, and reveals how sensory systems can mediate the interplay between signal perception and production to facilitate adaptive communication strategies.

Learning to direct attention: Consequences for procedural task training programs.

Procedural training programs such as augmented and virtual reality programs often present cues that direct trainees' attention to particular locations and/or items to facilitate learning. However, the impact of different types of cues on trainees' learning is poorly understood. For example, cues that indicate the location of to-be-pressed buttons might cause a trainee to focus on button locations rather than their icons. If the trainee later needs to use a differently-arranged interface, they may be unable to complete the tasks and may need retraining. The current study trained people with either location cues or icon cues and then had them perform the same tasks with a rearranged layout. The results indicate that what a trainee learns is impacted by the type of cue and the type of icons in the interface. When the interface contained icons that represented their function, participants trained with location cues had poorer accuracy and reported experiencing higher difficulty using the interface than participants trained with icon cues, suggesting that icon cues may lead to greater learning than location cues. Both groups, though, maintained similar accuracy when the interface rearranged, indicating they both learned button icons. When the interface contained abstract icons, participants trained with icon cues were able to maintain higher accuracy with the rearranged interface compared to participants trained with location cues suggesting they had greater knowledge of button icons. This finding indicates designers of procedural training programs should consider how cue type could impact a trainee's learning, particularly with abstract icons.

Selective Attention and Decision-Making Have Separable Neural Bases in Space and Time.

Attention and decision-making processes are fundamental to cognition. However, they are usually experimentally confounded, making it difficult to link neural observations to specific processes. Here we separated the effects of selective attention from the effects of decision-making on brain activity obtained from human participants (both sexes), using a two-stage task where the attended stimulus and decision were orthogonal and separated in time. Multivariate pattern analyses of multimodal neuroimaging data revealed the dynamics of perceptual and decision-related information coding through time with magnetoencephalography (MEG), through space with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and their combination (MEG-fMRI fusion). Our MEG results showed an effect of attention before decision-making could begin, and fMRI results showed an attention effect in early visual and frontoparietal regions. Model-based MEG-fMRI fusion suggested that attention boosted stimulus information in the frontoparietal and early visual regions before decision-making was possible. Together, our results suggest that attention affects neural stimulus representations in the frontoparietal regions independent of decision-making.

Image perception and reception in wordless picture books: Eye movements of children with intellectual disabilities.

Wordless picture books enhance comprehension and vocabulary growth and motivate children with intellectual disabilities (ID) to participate in literary activities. However, the reception of picture books can be challenging because deliberate selective attention processes and recognition of the image's meaning are often delayed. Examining eye movements may help explore these cognitive processes. Therefore, we examined eye movements in 29 children with mild and moderate ID as they explored a wordless picture book, presented on a screen and compared them to 14 typically developing children using a Tobii Pro X3-120 eye tracker. The findings showed that children with moderate ID had shorter fixation duration, fixated less often, and revisited regions of interest less frequently. Our results suggest that children with moderate ID have greater difficulties in selectively directing their attention toward regions of visual input with a high level of informativeness and expend less cognitive effort to understand their meaning.

Binaural interaction in human auditory brainstem and middle-latency responses affected by sound frequency band, lateralization predictability, and attended modality.

The binaural interaction component (BIC) of the auditory evoked potential is the difference between the waveforms of the binaural response and the sum of left and right monaural responses. This investigation examined BICs of the auditory brainstem (ABR) and middle-latency (MLR) responses concerning three objectives: 1) the level of the auditory system at which low-frequency dominance in BIC amplitudes begins when the binaural temporal fine structure is more influential with lower- than higher-frequency content; 2) how BICs vary as a function of frequency and lateralization predictability, as could relate to the improved lateralization of high-frequency sounds; 3) how attention affects BICs. Sixteen right-handed participants were presented with either low-passed (< 1000 Hz) or high-passed (> 2000 Hz) clicks at 30 dB SL with a 38 dB (A) masking noise, at a stimulus onset asynchrony of 180 ms. Further, this repeated-measures design manipulated stimulus presentation (binaural, left monaural, right monaural), lateralization predictability (unpredictable, predictable), and attended modality (either auditory or visual). For the objectives, respectively, the results were: 1) whereas low-frequency dominance in BIC amplitudes began during, and continued after, the Na-BIC, binaural (center) as well as summed monaural (left and right) amplitudes revealed low-frequency dominance only after the Na wave; 2) with a predictable position that was fixed, no BIC exhibited equivalent amplitudes between low- and high-passed clicks; 3) whether clicks were low- or high-passed, selective attention affected the ABR-BIC yet not MLR-BICs. These findings indicate that low-frequency dominance in lateralization begins at the Na latency, being independent of the efferent cortico-collicular pathway's influence.

Exploration, Distributed Attention, and Development of Category Learning.

Category learning is a crucial aspect of cognition that involves organizing entities into equivalence classes. Whereas adults tend to focus on category-relevant features, young children often distribute attention between relevant and irrelevant ones. The reasons for children's distributed attention are not fully understood. In two category-learning experiments with adults and with children aged 4, 5, and 6 (N = 201), we examined potential drivers of distributed attention, including (a) immature filtering of distractors and (b) the general tendency for exploration or broad information sampling. By eliminating distractor competition, we reduced filtering demands. Despite identifying the features critical for accurate categorization, children, regardless of their categorization performance, continued sampling more information than was necessary. These results indicate that the tendency to sample information extensively contributes to distributed attention in young children. We identify candidate drivers of this tendency that need to be examined in future research.

Directing Attention Shapes Learning in Adults but Not Children.

Children sometimes learn distracting information better than adults do, perhaps because of the development of selective attention. To understand this potential link, we ask how the learning of children (aged 7-9 years) and the learning of adults differ when information is the directed focus of attention versus when it is not. Participants viewed drawings of common objects and were told to attend to the drawings (Experiment 1: 42 children, 35 adults) or indicate when shapes (overlaid on the drawings) repeated (Experiment 2: 53 children, 60 adults). Afterward, participants identified fragments of these drawings as quickly as possible. Adults learned better than children when directed to attend to the drawings; however, when drawings were task irrelevant, children showed better learning than adults in the first half of the test. And although directing attention to the drawings improved learning in adults, children learned the drawings similarly across experiments regardless of whether the drawings were the focus of the task or entirely irrelevant.

Scent-driven Selective Attention on Gambling Outcome: Implications for Responsible Gambling.

Many casinos diffuse a pleasant ambient scent into their facilities as a customer experience management practice, but the ethics of this scenting process is questionable. Although the effect of a pleasant scent on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses has been well-documented, its effect on attention during gambling has yet to be explored. Grounded in the tenets of the top-down control of attention and cross-modal correspondence between vision and olfaction, we conduct two eye-tracking experiments that involve different electronic casino games including video slots and live Cussec. The findings consistently show that pleasant ambient scent prolongs attention and induces more frequent attention to the win/loss areas on the video screen. The findings add to the implications related to responsible gambling by inspiring the stakeholders to consider the use of ambient scent in the gambling environment. Theoretically, the findings offer insights into scent as the catalyst that directs attention to goal-related information, while scent and goal do not need to be congruent in traits.

Reduced P300 amplitude in children and adolescents with autism is associated with slowed processing speed, executive difficulties, and social-communication problems.

LAY ABSTRACT: Selective attention to auditory input is reflected in the brain by an electric amplitude called the P3b amplitude, which is measured using electroencephalography. Previous research has shown that children and adolescents with autism have an attenuated P3b amplitude when they have to attend specific sounds while ignoring other sounds. However, it is unknown whether a reduced P3b amplitude in autistic children and adolescents is associated with their autism features, daily functioning and/or cognitive functions. This study aimed to examine these questions. Therefore, we assessed selective attention to auditory input in 57 children with autism aged 7-14 years and 57 neurotypically developing controls while measuring their brain activity with electroencephalography. Participants further underwent cognitive assessment, and parents reported on autistic traits and daily functioning. As expected, children with autism had lower P3b amplitude compared to their neurotypical peers. Importantly, an attenuated P3b amplitude was associated with more parent-reported social-communication problems and difficulties with daily functioning. Children with autism further had reduced processing speed of visual input, which also was coupled to a lower P3b amplitude. In conclusion, we found attenuated P3b amplitude in children with autism performing an auditory selective attention task, which was related to difficulties with processing visual input and allocating attentional resources critical for social and daily functioning. The results suggest that autistic children are more vulnerable to being disturbed when the environment is filled with conflicting sensory input.

Target switch costs in visual search arise during the preparatory activation of target templates.

Prior research on task switching has shown that the reconfiguration of stimulus-response mappings across trials is associated with behavioral switch costs. Here, we investigated the effects of switching representations of target-defining features in visual search (attentional templates). Participants searched for one of two color-defined target objects that changed predictably every two trials (Experiment 1) or every four trials (Experiment 2). Substantial costs were observed for search performance on target switch relative to target repeat trials. Preparatory target template activation processes were tracked by measuring N2pc components (indicative of attentional capture) to a rapid series of task-irrelevant color singleton probes that appeared during the interval between search displays, and either matched the currently relevant or the other target color. N2pcs to relevant target color probes emerged from 800 ms before search display onset on target repetition trials, reflecting the activation of a corresponding color template. Crucially, probe N2pcs only emerged immediately before target onset on target switch trials, indicating that preparatory template activation was strongly delayed. In contrast, irrelevant color singleton probes did not trigger N2pcs on either repeat or switch trials, suggesting the absence of any target template inertia across trials. These results show that switching the identity of search targets delays preparatory target template activation and impairs subsequent attentional guidance processes. They suggest that performance costs on switch versus repeat trials are associated with differences in the time course of task preparation.

Load effect of visual working memory on distractor interference: An investigation with two replication experiments.

Konstantinou et al. (Experiment 1B; Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 76, 1985-1997, 2014) reported that an increase in visual short-term memory (VSTM) load reduced distractor interference in the flanker task. Yao et al. (Experiment 3; Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 82, 3291-3313, 2020) replicated the design of Konstantinou et al.'s experiment and showed that the VSTM load did not modulate the distractor interference effect, contradicting the original findings. However, it is unknown whether differences in task-design between the two experiments contributed to the inconsistent results. Therefore, we first replicated the original two studies with Experiment 1 (N = 54) and Experiment 2 (N = 54) and performed a statistical comparison between the data from these two experiments. In a third experiment (N = 28), we incorporated articulatory suppression into the design to exclude possible effects of verbalization. According to the ANOVA analyses, the VSTM load did not change the level of distractor interference in all three experiments, indicating that differences in task design alone do not explain the inconsistency.

A Feature-Space Theory of the Production Effect in Recognition.

Mathematical models explaining production effects assume that production leads to the encoding of additional features, such as phonological ones. This improves memory with a combination of encoding strength and feature distinctiveness, implementing aspects of propositional theories. However, it is not clear why production differs from other manipulations such as study time and spaced repetition, which are also thought to influence strength. Here we extend attentional subsetting theory and propose an explanation based on the dimensionality of feature spaces. Specifically, we suggest phonological features are drawn from a compact feature space. Deeper features are sparsely subselected from a larger subspace. Algebraic and numerical solutions shed light on several findings, including the dependency of production effects on how other list items are encoded (differing from other strength factors) and the production advantage even for homophones. This places production within a continuum of strength-like manipulations that differ in terms of the feature subspaces they operate upon and leads to novel predictions based on direct manipulations of feature-space properties.

Investigating the selective attention, attentional bias and smoking among Turkish University students: A cross-sectional study.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between selective attention, attentional bias and smoking in Turkish university students. The study was conducted with 64 individuals with an average age of 20.3 ± 0.83 years. While the d2 Test of Attention was used to measure various aspects of attention including processing speed, accuracy and selective attention; the Smoking Stroop Test evaluated the attentional bias toward smoking-related stimuli by comparing reaction times to smoking-related and neutral words. Also, the Fagerström Nicotine Dependence Test and Questionnaire of Smoking Urges assessed the level of nicotine dependence and cravings of participants. Findings showed that smoking status (B: 0.05, 95%CI:0.03,0.07) was statistically explanatory of attentional bias, but there was no significant difference in selective attention performance in terms of smoking status. These results are important for the development of intervention methods targeting cognitive processes associated with smoking.