Browsing by Subject "Attention"
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Item A study of attention-seeking behavior in young children(Texas Tech University, 1968-08) Enlow, Ralph VernonNot availableItem An evaluation of the effects of vigilance performance upon the automatic process of frequency estimation(Texas Tech University, 1986-05) Brenner, Richard NeilPast research has shown that subject gender and mental load may have significant effects upon performance. In studies where gender differences have been reported, males have been found to be superior to females on vigilance tasks. However, it was suggested here that this is resultant from traditional male superiority on symbolic tasks, in that vigilance tasks have traditionally utilized symbolic stimuli. It was expected that the traditional performance, as would increased mental load. The Hasher and Zacks' (1979) hypothesis of event frequency as an automatic process was examined, as subjects in this study were asked to estimate the frequency of the stimuli they saw during the vigilance phase of the experiment. The automaticity • hypothesis in question suggests that frequency estimation should not be affected by subjects' performance on a distractor task, assuming exposure to the stimuli to be tested is sufficient. The vigilance task served as a means of measuring subjects' attention to the to-be-tested stimuli. It was hypothesized here that, contrary to the automaticity hypothesis, vigilance performance would be positively related to frequency estimation performance. It was found that for verbal stimuli, males and females performed equally on both vigilance and frequency estimation tasks, and that performance was better for verbal stimuli than for symbolic stimuli on both tasks. Males outperformed females on vigilance for symbolic stimuli, providing some support for the concept that male vigilance superiority is related to the type of information presented. While the automaticity hypothesis does not explain why frequency estimation of symbolic stimuli is poorer than that of verbal stimuli, the lack of a clear relationship between attention and frequency estimation found in this study does support Hasher and Zacks' contention.Item Approach Motivation and Attentional Breadth: Role of Construal Levels(2011-02-22) Serra, Raymond NicholasPrevious research has observed that approach motivation can both increase and decrease attentional breadth. How does the same motivation have these seemingly divergent effects? Three studies tested the hypothesis that mental construal levels help to determine the breadth of approach-motivated attention. In all studies, construal levels were manipulated to be high or low and breadth of attention was assessed in the context of high approach motivation. Study 1 found that higher trait approach motivation predicts increased attentional breadth, but only following the induction of a high-level (versus low-level) mental construals. Study 2 found that, while viewing images of appetitive objects (i.e., desserts), high-level construals increased attentional breadth relative to low-level construals. Study 3, however, found little evidence that high (versus low) construal levels influenced attentional breadth while viewing images of appetitive or neutral objects. These results help to reconcile divergent past findings regarding approach motivation and breadth of attention, but the results fall short of providing definitive evidence for the hypothesized role of mental construal levels in approach-motivated attentional breadth.Item Attention deployment and conceptual inclusiveness of normals and schizophrenics(Texas Tech University, 1968-08) Sturm, Bessie Betty,Not availableItem Attention, search, and information diffusion : study of stock network dynamics and returns(2014-08) Leung, Chung Man Alvin; Konana, Prabhudev C.; Agarwal, AshishThere is growing literature on search behavior and using search for prediction of market share or macroeconomic indicators. This research explores investors' stock search behaviors and investigates whether there are patterns in stock returns using those for return prediction. Stock search behaviors may reveal common interest among investors. In the first study, we use graph theory to find investment habitats (or search clusters) formed by users who search common set of stocks frequently. We study stock returns of stocks within the clusters and across the clusters to provide theoretical arguments that drive returns among search clusters. In the second study, we analyze return comovement and cross-predictability among economically related stocks searched frequently by investors. As search requires a considerable amount of cognitive resources of investors, they only search a few stocks and pay high attention to them. According to attention theory, the speed of information diffusion is associated with the level of attention. Quick information diffusion allows investors to receive relevant information immediately and take instantaneous trading action. This immediate action may lead to correlated return comovement. Slow information diffusion creates latency between the occurrence of an event and the action of investors. The slower response may lead to cross-predictability. Making use of the discrepancy in information diffusion, we implement a trading strategy to establish arbitrage opportunities among stocks due to difference in user attention. This research enriches the growing IS literature on information search by (1) identifying new investment habitats based on user search behaviors, (2) showing that varying degrees of co-attention and economic linkages may lead to different speed of information diffusion (3) developing a stock forecasting model based on real-time co-attention intensity of a group economically linked stocks and (4) embarking a new research area on search attention in stock market. The methods in handling complex search data may also contribute to big data research.Item Attentional limitation and multiple-target visual search(2002-12) Thornton, Thomas Lafayette; Gilden, David Loren, 1954-Item Becoming a gamer : cognitive effects of real-time strategy gaming(2012-05) Glass, Brian Daniel, 1981-; Maddox, W. Todd; Love, Bradley C.; Huk, Alexander C.; Miikkulainen, Risto; Schnyer, David M.Video gaming has become a major pastime in modern life, and it continues to accelerate in popularity. A recent wave of psychological research has demonstrated that core perceptual changes coincide with video game play. Video games incorporate highly complex and immersive experiences which invoke a range of psychological mechanisms. This complexity has led to intractability which precludes determining which specific attributes of video gaming lead to cognitive change. The current work represents a research initiative which uses real-time strategy (RTS) games to boost executive functioning. In order to establish a link between video game features, video game behavior, and cognitive changes, an attention-switching tests two different forms of the same RTS game. Additionally, a difficulty titration paradigm attenuates individual differences in gaming skill. Thus, this project represents a critical advancement over prior research in that aspects of the video game itself were controlled and used to experimentally examine resulting cognitive change. Participants completed a psychological task battery before and after video game training, as well as at a mid-test. The battery covered a range of cognitive abilities including long-term memory, working memory, several attention-related constructs, risk taking, visual search, task switching and multitasking. These tasks were divided into two groups depending on the level of executive functioning components associated with the task performance. This resulted in a group of executive tasks and a group of other tasks. Because the high-switching gaming condition involves control and maintenance over a larger spread of gaming situations, performance on the executive task cluster was expected to improve more for this condition relative to the low-switching gaming condition. To reduce the impact of practice effects and the peripheral aspects of video gaming in interpreting the results, the Sims group was used a control baseline. A meta-analytical Bayes factor technique was used to determine the strength of performance changes from pre-test to mid-test, post-test, and follow up. By post-test, there was evidence that RTS training in the high attention-switching condition had improved on executive functioning tasks but not on other tasks. These results provide further evidence that video game training leads to psychological benefits over time.Item Central perceptual task difficulty on peripheral detection performance(Texas Tech University, 1979-05) Dannhaus, Dale M.People cannot respond to all the stimuli which are present at any given moment. Consequently, we attend to a severely restricted selection of potential information and ignore the remainder. The process of selecting certain information, as opposed to other information impinging on the sensory receptors, has been termed selective attention (Treisman, 1969). When persons are required to perform two or more tasks at the same time, performance on at least one of the tasks usually deteriorates from that observed when the same tasks are performed separately. The results of the investigations in this experimental area served as one of the principal sources of evidence in support of the notion that man is limited in the amount of information he can process per unit of time (Broadbent, 1958; Norman, 1968; Treisman, 1969) Since there is a type of competition between signals for some limited capacity system, tasks which place demands on the central limited capacity tend to interfere with each other (Posner & Boies, 1971). A number of investigations (e.g., Welch, 1898; Welford, 1968) have used this basic idea to measure the attention demands of one task by its interference with a secondary task.Item The cerebellum and divided attention in autism spectrum disorders(2014-08) Hsu, Julie Yong; Allen, Greg, doctor of clinical psychologyDivided attention, or the ability to respond to more than one task simultaneously, is an important skill for navigating complex social, communicative, academic, and professional settings. The purpose of the current study was to understand the association between the volume of the posterior cerebellum and divided attention in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and control participants. It was hypothesized that the ASD group would have worse divided attention abilities and smaller posterior cerebellar volumes compared to the control group. Furthermore, reduced posterior cerebellar volume was expected to be associated with weaker divided attention abilities. Participants were young adult males with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (n=15) and controls matched for age, handedness, and nonverbal IQ (n=19). Results showed partial support for worse divided attention performance in ASDs and for a positive association between posterior cerebellar volume and divided attention performance. There were no group differences in posterior cerebellar volume, and accounting for intracranial volume did not affect findings. Limitations of the current study and future directions are discussed.Item Comparison of mother-child interactions in hyperactive and nonhyperactive groups under distraction conditions(Texas Tech University, 1978-08) Lundy, Nancy CatherineNot availableItem Directing attention in melodic dictation(Texas Tech University, 2007-05) Paney, Andrew S.; Brumfield, Susan; Hazlett, Allan; Killian, Janice; Marks, Jonathan; Santa, MatthewMusic students are generally required to take classes in aural skills. Many begin university theory classes with little or no aural skills training. Instructors are charged with the task of challenging well-prepared students while providing remediation for others. Researchers have isolated four phases involved in taking dictation: hearing, memory, understanding, and notation. Would directing students through those phases help them score better on a dictation assessment? Subjects were music students in their second, third, or fourth level of aural skills training at the time of the experiment. Two matched groups were formed based on subjects’ scores on a dictation of a recorded melody. Subjects in the control group took a second dictation individually. Subjects in the treatment group also took a second individual dictation, but they received instructions before and after each hearing. These instructions directed their attention to basic musical aspects of the recording and asked them to respond to questions regarding those aspects. Dictations were evaluated based on rhythm, pitch, and overall scores. The top and bottom 25% (based on their matching scores) were also compared. In every comparison the control group scored higher than the treatment group. Comparisons of the whole group in rhythm, pitch, and overall scores showed a significant difference in scores favoring the control group. Results suggest that receiving direction during a dictation was not helpful to music students. This may be a result of a disruption of students' established routines. It may also indicate a lack of mastery of the component basic musicianship skills requisite for successful mastery of dictation.Item Early predictors of attention and engaged leaning in elementary school(2006-08) Dowsett, Chantelle Jean; Huston, Aletha C.Cognitive self-regulation, or the ability to direct one’s attention and actively participate in learning, is a valuable asset because it promotes successful adjustment across the lifespan. Although cross-sectional studies have provided some information about the stability and change in cognitive self-regulation from early childhood through the elementary school years (ages 3-12), less is known about the other child characteristics that influence its development. This study is designed to examine multiple dimensions of preschool skills in relation to children’s attention and engaged learning across the elementary school years. Rich longitudinal data are used from a sample of 1,364 typically developing children from across the U.S. who participated in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Variation in preschool attentional skills, social behavior, and early academic skills was used to predict average level and rate of change in attention, planning, work habits, and classroom engagement from first through sixth grades. Results indicate that high levels of teacher-rated attention problems in the fall of kindergarten are consistently related to lower levels of attention and engaged learning in elementary school. High scores on kindergarten teacher-rated internalizing problems and social skills are linked with high attention and classroom work habits according to elementary school teachers. Finally, early academic skills (particularly oral language skills) are associated with high performance on the Tower of Hanoi planning task and high observed classroom engagement. These results suggest that programs designed to promote school readiness would be remiss in emphasizing early academic skills to the detriment of addressing children’s attention problems and social behavior.Item Executive function processes: inhibition, working memory, planning and attention in children and youth with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(Texas A&M University, 2006-04-12) Wolfe, Monica EileenThis study examines the roles of inhibition, attention, working memory, and planning in youth with and without ADHD. As conceptualized in theories of attention, inhibition, and working memory, difficulties with these executive processes interact to manifest in the behavioral syndrome(s) of ADHD. Barkley (1997) proposed disinhibition as the primary deficit of ADHD. Rapport, Chung, Shore, Denney, & Isaacs, (2000) theorized that ADHD results from a primary deficit in working memory. Mirsky (1987) proposed a model of attention which children with ADHD have deficits in abilities to focus/execute, encode and sustain attention. Posner and Petersen (1990) proposed that three attentional networks are responsible for attentional processes and those children with ADHD have deficits in the vigilance network. To investigate the contributions of inhibition, working memory, attention, and planning in executive dysfunction in children with ADHD, measures were selected from factor analytic studies. Children with ADHD-Combined Type demonstrated poorer inhibition and working memory than children with no diagnosis after controlling for IQ effects. No differences in planning and attention were indicated after controlling for IQ effects. However, a predictive discriminant analysis indicated that none of the executive processes contributed to the prediction of group membership. Given correlational and predictive discriminant analysis results, further analyses were conducted to investigate the contribution of the measures selected for the domains. The theoretical model did not represent a good fit of the data. A three-factor model indicated the best representation suggesting that inhibition and attention were not separable. There were no group differences with the revised measurement model for inhibition/attention, working memory and planning. Taken together, results indicated measures originally selected to tap executive function may not be clean measures of inhibition, working memory, planning, or attention processes. In addition, recently proposed theories overlap and conceptualize the multiple constructs involved in ADHD with a variety of methodologies, further contributing to difficulties in interpreting results and measurement issues.Item Identifying the Benefits of Observational Practice in the Acquisition of a Novel Coordination Skill(2014-08-14) Park, InchonThe experiment undertaken was designed to reveal how split attention within an observational learning context influences perception and production processes. The task was producing a bimanual coordination pattern with a 90? relative phase lead of one hand over the other hand. Multi-resource observer group watched both of the model?s arms and training animation. Single-resource observer groups watched either model?s arm movements or a training animation. In the pre- and post-scanning trials, participants performed the task with pendula animation. After each trial, they performed a perceptual test. In the pre- and post-baseline trials, participants watched the pendula animation and then, re-produce the pattern. During the practice session, models tracked the training animation and their yoked observer saw this. The physical practice model improved at both physical performance and perceptual discrimination of the practiced task. The observer groups showed better performance in perceptual and physical performance test compared to the control group. This implies that observer?s ability of extracting the relative phase information indicates a link from perceiving the model?s movement to the coordination process required to producing the observed action. As a theory of observational learning, the visual perspective theory specifically accounts for the pick-up relative motion information (relative phase) through observation.Item The influence of food and beverage advertising on youth : an eye-tracking approach(2012-05) Velazquez, Cayley Erin; Pasch, Keryn E.; Bartholomew, John; Loukas, Alexandra; Mackert, Michael; Perry, Cheryl L.Overweight and obesity are influenced by many factors, however, food and beverage advertising and its influence on the dietary preferences and choices of youth is important. Models providing explanations for the association between advertising and youth outcomes have been proposed, yet few have been tested. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how objective measures of attention to food and beverage advertising were associated with the (1) unhealthy food and beverage preferences (2) unhealthy food and beverage choices and (3) overweight/obesity status of youth, and how susceptibility to food and beverage advertising moderated these associations. Participants included 102 youth (m age = 11.6; 56.4% Caucasian; 43.1% female) who viewed 40 food and beverage advertisements on a computer and had their eye movements recorded. Attention measures included total time, total unhealthy time, fixation length (animated characters/branded logos, unhealthy food and beverage items), and fixation count (animated characters/branded logos, unhealthy food and beverage items). Participants self-reported susceptibility to food and beverage advertising, unhealthy food and beverage preferences, unhealthy food and beverage choices, and overweight/obesity. Regression models, controlling for gender, and moderation analyses were conducted. Fixation length and count for unhealthy food and beverage items were each positively and significantly associated with unhealthy food and beverage preferences. Fixation count for unhealthy food and beverage items was positively and marginally associated with unhealthy food and beverage choices. Findings indicate that individuals who look longer and more frequently at unhealthy food and beverage items appear to prefer them, and may also choose them. Susceptibility to food and beverage advertising moderated the association between fixation count for animated characters/branded logos and BMI z-score, suggesting that under conditions of high susceptibility to food and beverage advertising, those with a higher fixation count for animated characters/branded logos had a lower BMI z-score. Future research should include longitudinal studies, as well as work which examines the role of other potential moderating variables. Findings may have important implications for use in intervention programs, in the development of advertising messages for healthy food and beverage items, and/or policy initiatives aimed at changing the landscape of food and beverage advertising.Item Investigation of Resource Allocation in Persons with Aphasia for AAC-Related Tasks(Texas Tech University, 2011-08) Petroi, Diana; Koul, Rajinder; Corwin, Melinda D.; Dembowski, James; Aoyama, Katsura; O'Boyle, MichaelThis study investigated resource allocation abilities in persons with aphasia (PWA) in the presence and absence of competing stimuli across a series of experimental tasks that involved identifying and selecting single symbols and subject-verb-object (SVO) sentences on a speech generating device (SGD). Participants included 10 individuals with Broca’s aphasia and a group of 10 typical individuals matched on assigned variables. A mixed-group design was used to compare the performance of the two groups on single symbol and SVO sentence accuracy and response latency measures. Data were analyzed using a repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results revealed that PWA accurately identified significantly (p <.01) fewer single symbols and SVO sentences in comparison to matched control participants. Additionally, number of symbols per screen and level of location of symbols had a significant effect (p <.01) on accuracy of responses for both groups. Furthermore, there was a significant (p <.05) interaction between the listening condition and group variables, indicating that competing stimuli have the potential to slow down the processing of information for PWA. Analysis of response latencies indicated that PWA exhibited longer response latencies across all three listening conditions in contrast to control participants. A significant negative correlation (p <.05) was observed between accuracy of responses for the single symbol and SVO sentence tasks and perceptual ratings of task difficulty. In summary, the results of this study indicate that effective and efficient use of SGDs by PWA depends upon several vocabulary organization factors such as the number of symbols on a screen and the specific location of a symbol across several screens. These results suggest that researchers and clinicians may need to consider organizing vocabulary on SGDs in such a manner as to reduce the cognitive demands placed on PWA.Item Local Attentional Bias Increases Approach Motivation: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials and Frequency Analyses(2011-08-08) Gable, Philip ArvisOver twenty years of research have examined the cognitive consequences of positive affect states, and suggested that positive affect leads to a broadening of cognition. However, this research has primarily examined positive affect that is low in approach motivational intensity (e.g. contentment). In my program of research, I have systematically examined positive affect that varies in approach motivational intensity, and found that positive affect high in approach motivation (e.g. desire) narrow cognition, whereas positive affect low in approach motivation broaden cognition. In this dissertation, I will review past models and present a motivational dimension model of affect that expands understanding of how affective states influence attentional and cognitive breadth. I then review a body of research that has varied the motivational intensity of positive and negative affect and found that affect of low motivational intensity broadens cognitive processes, whereas affect of high motivational intensity narrows cognitive processes. Furthermore, a bi-directional link exists between attentional narrowing and approach motivation, such that a narrowed attentional focus to appetitive stimuli causes greater approach motivation than a broadened attentional focus.Item Measuring visual stimulation and attention signals in human superior colliculus using high-resolution fMRI(2013-05) Katyal, Sucharit; Ress, David BruceThe superior colliculus (SC) is a laminated oculomotor structure in the midbrain. In non-human primates SC has long been known to contain a retinotopically-organized map of visual stimulation in its superficial layers, which is aligned to a map of saccadic eye movements in the deeper layers. Microstimulation and electrophysiology experiments have shown that SC also plays a key role in covert visuospatial attention and suggest that attentional modulation also occurs in a retinotopic manner. Retinotopic organization of the visual field can be non-invasively mapped in humans using functional MRI with a technique called phase-encoded retinotopy. In this technique, rotating wedges and expanding rings of visual stimuli are used to map the polar angle and eccentricity dimensions of a polar coordinates system, respectively. A similar technique can also be used to map spatial attention by keeping the visual stimulus constant and cueing subjects to attend to apertures of rotating wedges and expanding rings within the stimulus. A previous study using fMRI has shown the polar angle representation of visual stimulation in human SC but was unable to find a representation of eccentricity. This work uses high-resolution fMRI along with special surface analysis techniques developed in our lab to demonstrate maps of both polar angle and eccentricity for visual stimulation. Moreover, visual attention is also shown to be topographically organized within SC and in registration with visual stimulation. Finally, in human visual cortex, fMRI is known to show activity for sustained spatial attention even in the absence of a significant visual stimulus, an attentional "base response". In this work, SC is shown to exhibit a similar sustained attention base response using a threshold-contrast detection paradigm. This base response was compared with a response for attention with visual stimulation. The peak amplitude of the base response occurred more deeply within SC tissue than the peak for attention with stimulation. It is proposed that this reflects the specific attentional enhancement of the deeper visuomotor neurons, which are hypothesized to be a direct neuronal correlate of the oculomotor theory of attention.Item Mechanisms of behavioral change targeting automatic processes(2014-12) Bakkour, Akram; Beer, Jennifer S., 1974-; Poldrack, Russell A.; Monfils, Marie H; Drew, Michael R; Lewis-Peacock, Jarrod AIn order to eliminate unhealthy behaviors, one must find ways to make better choices. Changing preferences is an important strategy in addressing public health concerns such as the obesity epidemic. In this dissertation, I present several lines of research, which all aim to influence choice behavior. First, we developed a novel extensive training paradigm that uses monetary reinforcement to influence choices for less desired palatable foods over initially more preferred foods. We found that, as reinforced training progressed, there was decreased recruitment of a frontoparietal network of brain regions that have been previously associated with cognitive control. We also found neural evidence that suggests formation of a stronger stimulus-response association as reinforced training progressed. These findings demonstrate that it is possible to influence food choices through reinforcement and that training is associated with a decreasing need for top-down frontoparietal control. However, the long term durability of this change in choice behavior is in question. Learning theory predicts a return to choosing the initially more preferred item simply with the passage of time, despite overtraining the new behavior. Thus, we turned our efforts toward targeting automatic processes to achieve a lasting shift in choice behavior. We found that our attempts to interfere with memory traces for an established choice or to train bottom-up inhibition to avoid particular food items were unsuccessful. However, we found that driving sustained attention toward particular food items at behaviorally relevant points in time during cue-approach training robustly influences choice preferences in favor of those items. Imaging results show that value representation for those items in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is amplified. Finally, we found that spacing cue-approach training trials over multiple days benefits the long-term maintenance of the cue-approach choice effect. Results presented in this dissertation lay the groundwork for new insights into mechanisms of behavioral change and value-based decision making more broadly as well as suggest some strategies for developing real-world intervention paradigms to help those seeking to adopt and maintain healthier habits.Item Nonlinear cochlear responses differ during selective and inattentive listening(2012-05) Walsh, Kyle Patrick, 1982-; McFadden, Dennis, 1940-; Champlin, Craig A.; Geisler, Wilson S.; Hayhoe, Mary M.; Markman, Arthur B.Previous studies have demonstrated that the magnitudes of otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) measured during behavioral tasks requiring attention were different from OAE magnitudes measured during tasks that did not require attention. The implication of these results is that the cognitive and perceptual demands of a task can affect the first neural stage of auditory processing—the sensory receptors themselves. However, the directions of the reported attentional effects have been inconsistent, the magnitudes of the observed differences always have been small, and comparisons across studies have been made difficult by significant procedural differences. In this study, we used a nonlinear version of the stimulus-frequency OAE (SFOAE), called the nSFOAE, to measure cochlear responses from human subjects while they simultaneously performed behavioral tasks requiring selective auditory attention (dichotic or diotic listening), or relative inattention. The results indicated statistically significant systematic differences in nSFOAE magnitudes within subjects, but opposite directions of effect across subjects. Differences in the nSFOAEs measured during the dichotic- and diotic-listening conditions suggested that cochlear responses differed in these two types of selective-listening tasks. Time constants measured from functions fitted to the nSFOAE responses indicated faster efferent effects during selective listening than during inattentive listening for the majority of subjects. Furthermore, measurements in brief silent intervals after the nSFOAE stimuli indicated weaker residual nSFOAE magnitudes during selective listening than during inattentive listening for every subject. This collection of findings supports the hypothesis that auditory attentional demands can modulate cochlear processing, presumably to the benefit of the listener.