The effect of prevalence on distractor speeded search termination.

Visual search can be disrupted by irrelevant salient stimuli. Recently, Moher (Psychological Science, 31(1), 31-42, 2020) found salient distractors to speed search when a target was absent and increase error rates when the target was present. That is, distractors lowered search-quitting thresholds. Nonetheless, the salient distractors Moher used were present on 50% of all trials. Since distractor prevalence has been found to influence search processes more broadly, here, we aimed to test the effect of distractor prevalence on this distractor-quitting threshold effect (QTE). To do so, we conducted two experiments. Experiment 1 compared the performance of individuals in a search task where the target was present on 50% of trials across two distractor-prevalence conditions (25% vs. 75% prevalence). Experiment 2 followed the same procedure, except with a wider probability margin (10% vs. 90% prevalence). In Experiment 1, distractor prevalence did not modulate the QTE. Critically, in Experiment 2, the QTE was modulated. For high-prevalence distractors (90%), a QTE was observed. However, as low-prevalence distractors (10%) did not speed search, no QTE was observed. One potential reason no QTE was observed was because low-prevalence distractors have significantly greater attentional capture, which washed out speeded termination effects.

Investigating mechanisms of the attentional repulsion effect: A diffusion model analysis.

This article investigates the decisional and attentional drivers of the attentional repulsion effect (ARE) using the diffusion decision model (DDM). The ARE is a phenomenon in which a subjective expansion of space is experienced outside the focus of attention. It is thought to occur due to changes in the functioning of visual cell receptive fields. The DDM is a model of the decision-making process that assumes responses are selected by sequentially sampling an encoded representation of a stimulus until sufficient evidence has been accumulated favoring one response alternative over the other. The model decomposes observed choice and response times into different latent variables corresponding to the rate of evidence accumulation, response caution, response bias, and the time course of stimulus encoding and response execution. In this article, we interpret changes in the rate of evidence accumulation as primarily reflecting perceptual-driven changes in stimulus representation. We interpret changes in response bias as primarily reflecting decision-level changes. We utilize the DDM's ability to estimate these variables independently to explore how they are each affected by cueing manipulations to clarify whether the ARE emerges due to attentional or decisional drivers, or some combination of the two. The results of this study could shed light on the mechanisms underlying the ARE, and has implications in our understanding of spatial attention.

How exposure to body neutrality content on TikTok affects young women's body image and mood.

Body neutrality aims to encourage a non-judgmental attitude towards the body and prioritize functionality over appearance. This study examined the impact of exposure to TikTok body neutrality content on young women's body image and mood. The sample comprised 189 undergraduate women (Mage = 19.25, SD = 1.98) who were randomly assigned to view one of three compilation TikTok videos on body neutrality, thin ideal, or art. Controlling for pre-test measures, results showed that women in the body neutrality group reported higher functionality appreciation and body satisfaction than women in the thin ideal and art control groups. Higher levels of positive mood and fewer upward appearance comparisons were reported by women in the body neutrality group relative to the thin ideal group. Although women in the body neutrality and thin ideal groups thought about their appearance and what they were wearing whilst viewing the videos, women in the body neutrality group reported that those thoughts were more positive than those in the thin ideal group. Findings demonstrate that brief exposure to body neutrality content on TikTok may induce immediate positive body image and mood in young women whilst providing a useful alternative to the unrealistic beauty standards popularized on such platforms.

Delayed onsets are not necessary for generating distractor quitting thresholds effects in visual search.

Salient distractors lower quitting thresholds in visual search. That is, when searching for the presence of a target among filler items, a large heterogeneously coloured distractor presented at a delayed onset produces quick target-absent judgements and increased target-present errors. The aim of the current study was to explore if the timing of the salient distractor modulates this Quitting Threshold Effect (QTE). In Experiment 1, participants completed a target detection search task in the presence or absence of a salient singleton distractor that either appeared simultaneously with other search items or appeared at a delayed onset (i.e., 100 ms or 250 ms after other array items appeared). In Experiment 2, a similar method was used, except that the salient singleton distractor appeared simultaneously, 100 ms before, or 100 ms after the other array items. Across both experiments, we observed robust distractor QTEs. Regardless of their onset, salient distractors decreased target-absent search speeds and increased target-present error rates. In all, the present findings suggest that delayed onsets are not required for lowered quitting thresholds in visual search.

Emphasizing responder speed or accuracy modulates but does not abolish the distractor-induced quitting effect in visual search.

When a highly salient distractor is present in a search array, it speeds target absent visual search and increases errors during target present visual search, suggesting lowered quitting thresholds (Moher in Psychol Sci 31(1):31-42, 2020). Missing a critical target in the presence of a highly salient distractor can have dire consequences in real-world search tasks where accurate target detection is crucial, such as baggage screening. As such, the current study examined whether emphasizing either accuracy or speed would eliminate the distractor-generated quitting threshold effect (QTE). Three blocks of a target detection search task which included a highly salient distractor on half of all trials were used. In one block, participants received no instructions or feedback regarding performance. In the remaining two blocks, they received instructions and trial-by-trial feedback that either emphasized response speed or response accuracy. Overall, the distractor lowered quitting thresholds, regardless of whether response speed or response accuracy was emphasized in a block of trials. However, the effect of the distractor on target misses was smaller when accuracy was emphasized. It, therefore, appears that while the distractor QTE is not easily eradicated by explicit instructions and feedback, it can be shifted. As such, future research should examine the applicability of these and similar strategies in real-world search scenarios.

Salience matters: Distractors may, or may not, speed target-absent searches.

Attention is often captured by irrelevant but salient changes in the environment, and usually results in slowed search speeds and increased errors during a typical visual search task. Nonetheless, a recent study conducted by Moher (2020, Psychological Science, 31[1], 31-42) found that the effect of a highly salient distractor on visual search depended on whether or not a target was also present in the display. While the distractor slowed search and increased errors for target-present trials, it speeded search for target-absent trials. Here, we aimed to replicate this finding and explore a potential boundary condition to the effect by manipulating the overall salience of the distractor. We did this by changing the size of the distractor to make it more or less salient. In Experiment, participants conducted a target-present and target-absent visual search task in the presence of a large, delayed-onset color distractor similar to that used in Moher's Study. In Experiment 2, a distractor that was much smaller than that used in the original Moher study was utilized. Critically, when a large distractor was used, the original findings of Moher were largely replicated; large salient distractors speeded target-absent visual search and increased errors for target-present visual search. However, when a smaller distractor was used, the results differed. For target-absent trials, search speeds were slower when the distractor was present compared with when it was absent. Thus, it appears that a highly salient distractor might be needed to trigger a shift in visual search strategy, and subsequently, lower quitting thresholds.

Can arrows change the subjective perception of space? Exploring symbolic attention repulsion.

The attention repulsion effect (ARE) refers to distortions in the perception of space for areas near the focus of attention. For instance, when attending to the right-hand side of the visual field, objects in central vision may appear as though they are shifted to the left. The phenomenon is likely caused by changes in visual cell functioning. To date, research on the ARE has almost exclusively used exogenous manipulations of attention. In contrast, research exploring endogenous attention repulsion has been mixed, and no research has explored the effects of nonpredictive arrow cues on this phenomenon. This gap in the literature is unexpected, as symbolic attention appears to be a unique form of attentional orienting compared with endogenous and exogenous attention. Therefore, this study explored the effects of symbolic orienting on spatial repulsion and compared it with an exogenously generated ARE. Across four experiments, both exogenous and symbolic orienting resulted in AREs; however, the magnitude of the symbolic ARE was smaller than the exogenous ARE. This difference in magnitude persisted, even after testing both phenomena using stimulus timing parameters known to produce optimal effects in traditional attentional cueing paradigms. Therefore, compared with symbolic attention, it appears that exogenous manipulations may tightly constrict attention resources on the cued location, in turn, potentially influencing the functioning of visual cells for enhanced perceptual processing.

The impact of scaling rather than shaping attention: Changes in the scale of attention using global motion inducers influence both spatial and temporal acuity.

Originally, the zoom lens model of attention scaling proposed that narrowing attention to a small area of the visual field improves visual perception (Eriksen & St. James, 1986). A large body of empirical evidence supports this model, showing that narrow attention enhances performance in spatial acuity tasks. Despite this, the zoom lens model does not explicitly consider how attention scaling influences different elements of vision, such as temporal processing. More recent models of attention scaling suggest that attentional scaling has different effects on spatial and temporal acuity (Goodhew, Lawrence, & Edwards, 2017; Goodhew, Shen, & Edwards, 2016). However, the evidence to date supporting these models has had one major pitfall: different-sized unfilled shapes are presented to focus attention in or spread it out broadly. This method is problematic because participants may not spread their attention across the entire region defined by unfilled shapes and instead may attend to only the annulus region of the shape. To address this, we developed a new method to manipulate attention-one which requires the pooling of information across the entire stimulus, not just around the outer border. We then tested the influence of attention scaling on perception using spatial and temporal gap tasks. Across 2 experiments, we found that sustaining a narrow attention scale improved both spatial and temporal acuity. These findings challenge recent research suggesting that attention scaling has differential impacts on spatial and temporal processing and instead support the zoom lens model that was proposed over 30 years ago. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A critical review of the cognitive and perceptual factors influencing attentional scaling and visual processing.

An important mechanism used to selectively process relevant information in the environment is spatial attention. One fundamental way in which spatial attention is deployed is attentional scaling - the process of focusing attentional resources either narrowly or broadly across the visual field. Although early empirical work suggested that narrowing attention improves all aspects of visual processing, recent studies have demonstrated that narrowing attention can also have no effect or even a detrimental impact when it comes to vision that is thought to be mediated via the magnocellular pathway of the visual system. Here, for the first time, we synthesize empirical evidence measuring the behavioral effects of attentional scaling on tasks gauging the contribution of the major neural pathways of the visual system, with the purpose of determining the potential factors driving these contradictory empirical findings. This analysis revealed that attentional scaling could be best understood by considering the unique methodologies used in the research literature to date. The implications of this analysis for theoretical frameworks of attentional scaling are discussed, and methodological improvements for future research are proposed.

Changes in the spatial spread of attention with ageing.

Spatial attention is a necessary cognitive process, allowing for the direction of limited capacity resources to varying locations in the visual field for improved visual processing. Thus, understanding how ageing influences these processes is vital. The current study explored the relationship between the spatial spread of attention and healthy ageing using an inhibition of return task to tap visual attention processing. This task allowed us to measure the spatial distribution of inhibition, and thus acted as a marker for attentional spread. Past research has indicated minimal age differences in inhibitory spread. However, these studies used placeholder stimuli, which may have restricted the range over which age differences could be reliably measured. To address this, in Experiment One, we measured the relationship between the spatial spread of inhibition and healthy ageing using a method which did not employ placeholders. In contrast to past research, an age difference in inhibitory spread was observed, where in comparison to younger adults, older adults exhibited a relatively restricted spread of attention. Experiment Two then confirmed these findings, by directly comparing inhibitory spread for placeholder present and placeholder absent conditions, across younger and older adults. Again, it was found that age differences in inhibitory spread emerged, but only in the placeholder absent condition. Possible reasons for the observed age differences in attention are discussed.

Testing the generality of the zoom-lens model: Evidence for visual-pathway specific effects of attended-region size on perception.

There are volumes of information available to process in visual scenes. Visual spatial attention is a critically important selection mechanism that prevents these volumes from overwhelming our visual system's limited-capacity processing resources. We were interested in understanding the effect of the size of the attended area on visual perception. The prevailing model of attended-region size across cognition, perception, and neuroscience is the zoom-lens model. This model stipulates that the magnitude of perceptual processing enhancement is inversely related to the size of the attended region, such that a narrow attended-region facilitates greater perceptual enhancement than a wider region. Yet visual processing is subserved by two major visual pathways (magnocellular and parvocellular) that operate with a degree of independence in early visual processing and encode contrasting visual information. Historically, testing of the zoom-lens has used measures of spatial acuity ideally suited to parvocellular processing. This, therefore, raises questions about the generality of the zoom-lens model to different aspects of visual perception. We found that while a narrow attended-region facilitated spatial acuity and the perception of high spatial frequency targets, it had no impact on either temporal acuity or the perception of low spatial frequency targets. This pattern also held up when targets were not presented centrally. This supports the notion that visual attended-region size has dissociable effects on magnocellular versus parvocellular mediated visual processing.