Advanced Topics in Psychology IV (PSYC4884)

Overview and Introduction to the Course

Introduction into Attention Research. Overview of Learning Resources and Assessments. Distribution of Student Presentations. To prepare, students can check Wikipedia. Wikipedia on Attention: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention, and Wikipedia on Visual Search: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_search

Students should familiarise themselves with the paper below before the seminar (Wolfe, 1994). The other papers are optional readings.

Papers:

Wolfe, J.M., & Horowitz, T.S. (2004). What attributes guide the deployment of visual attention and how do they do it? Nature Reviews Neurosience, 5, 495-501.

Wolfe, J. M. (1994). Guided Search 2.0: A revised model of visual search. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1, 202-238.

Optional Readings:

Treisman & Sato (1990): Conjunction Search Revisited. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 16, 459-478.

Posner, M. (1980). Orienting of Attention. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 32, 3-25.

Ruz, M. & Lupianez, J. (2002): A review of attentional capture: On its automaticity and sensitivity to endogenous control. Psicologica, 23, 283-309.

Duncan & Humphreys (1989): Visual search and stimulus similarity. Psychological Review, 96, 433-458.

Bottom-Up vs Top-Down controlled factors in attention (Student Presentations and Discussion)

All students should read the following two papers:

Papers:

Theeuwes, J. (1992). Perceptual selectivity for color and form. Perception &  Psychophysics, 51, 599-606.

Ludwig, C. J. H., & Gilchrist, I. D. (2002). Stimulus-driven and goal-driven control over visual selection. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 28, 902-912.

Optional:

Luck, S. J., Gaspelin, N., Folk, C. L., Remington, R. W., & Theeuwes, J. (2021). Progress toward resolving the attentional capture debate. Visual Cognition, 29, 1 21.

The role of search modes and inhibition (Student Presentations and Discussion)

All students should read the following two papers:

Papers:

Bacon, W.F. & Egeth, H.E. (1994). Overriding stimulus-driven attentional capture. Perception & Psychophysics, 55, 485-496.

Gaspelin, N., Leonard, C. J., & Luck, S. J. (2015). Direct evidence for active suppression of salient-but-irrelevant sensory inputs. Psychological Science, 26, 1740 1750. Optional

Optional:

Becker, S.I., Martin, A. & Hamblin-Frohman, Z. (2019). Target templates in singleton search vs. feature-based search modes. Visual Cognition, 27, 502-517.

Problems of Inhibition Research (Student Presentations and Discussion)

All students should read the following two papers:

Papers:

Chang, S., & Egeth, H. E. (2021). Can salient stimuli really be suppressed? Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 83(1), 260–269.

Hamblin-Frohman, Z., Chang, S., Egeth, H., & Becker, S.I. (2022). Eye movements reveal the contributions of early and late processes of enhancement and suppression to the guidance in visual search. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 84, 1913-1924.

Optional Paper:

Stillwell, B.T., Adams, O.J., Egeth, H.E., & Gaspelin, N. (2023): The role of salience in the suppression of distracting stimuli. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 30, 2262-2271.

Surprise Capture (Student Presentations and Discussion)

All students should read the following two papers:

Papers:

Gibson, B.S., & Jiang, Y. (1998). Surprise! An unexpected color singleton does not capture attention in visual search. Psychological Science, 9, 176-182.

Horstmann, G. (2002). Evidence for attentional capture by a surprising color singleton in visual search. Psychological Science, 13, 499-505.

Optional:

Ernst, D., Becker, S.I., & Horstmann, G. (2020). Novelty competes with saliency for attention. Vision Research, 168, 42-52.

Retell, J.D., Venini, D., & Becker, S.I. (2015). Oculomotor capture by new and unannounced color singletons during visual search. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 77, 1529-1543.

Inattentional Blindness (Student Presentations and Discussion

All students should read the following two papers:

Papers:

Simons, D.J., & Chabris, C.F. (1999): Gorillas in our midst: sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events. Perception, 28, 1059-1074.

Most et al. (2001). How not to be seen: The contribution of similarity and selective ignoring to sustained inattentional blindness. Psychological Science, 12, 9-17.

Optional Reading:

Most, S. B., Scholl, B. J., Clifford, E. R., & Simons D. J. (2005). What you see is what you set: Sustained inattentional blindness and the capture of awareness. Psychological Review, 112, 217-242.

Koivisto, M., Hyona, J., & Revonsuo, A. (2004). The effects of eye movements, spatial attention, and stimulus features on inattentional blindness. Vision Research, 44, 3211-3221.

Effects of emotional expressions on visual search for faces (Student Presentations and Discussion

All students should read the following two papers:

Papers:

Eastwood, J.D., Smilek, D., & Merikle, P.M. (2001). Differential attentional guidance by unattended faces expressing positive and negative emotion. Perception & Psychophysics, 63, 1004-1013.

Devue, C. & Grimshaw, G.M. (2017). Faces are special, but facial expressions aren’t: insights from the oculomotor capture paradigm. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 79, 1438-1452.

Optional Reading:

Becker, S. I., Horstmann, G., & Remington, R. W. (2011). Perceptual grouping, not emotion, accounts for search asymmetries with schematic faces. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 37, 1739-1757

Horstmann, G., Becker, S.I., Bergmann, S., & Burghaus, L. (2010). A reversal of the search asymmetry favouring negative schematic faces. Visual Cognition, 18, 981-1016.

Effects of Reward and Punishment on Attentional Capture (Student Presentations and Discussion)

All students should read the following three papers (*the first two are very short and count as one):

Papers:

Anderson, B.A., Laurent, P.A., & Yantis, S. (2011). Value-driven attentional capture. PNAS, 108, 10367-10371. AND:

Anderson, B.A., & Yantis, S. (2013). Persistence of value-driven attentional capture. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 39, 6-9.

-> both papers for one presentation as they’re very short!

Theeuwes, J. & Belopolsky, A.V. (2012). Reward grabs the eye: Oculomotor capture by rewarding stimuli. Vision Research, 74, 80-85.

Optional:

Schmidt, Belopolsky & Theeuwes (2015). Attentional capture by signals of threat. Cognition & Emotion, 29, 687-694.

Phobias and Attention (Student Presentations and Discussion

All students should read the following two papers:

Papers:

Lipp, O.V., & Waters, A.M. (2007). When danger lurks in the background: Attentional Capture by animal fear-relevant distractors is specific and selectively enhanced by animal fear. Emotion, 7, 192-200.

Gerdes, A.B.M., Alpers, G.W. & Pauli, P. (2008). When spiders appear suddenly: Spider-phobic patients are distracted by task-irrelevant spiders. Behavior Research and Therapy, 46, 174-187.

Optional Reading:

Devue, C., Belopolsky, A.V. & Theeuwes, J. (2011). The role of fear and expectancies in capture of covert attention by spiders. Emotion, 11, 768-775.

Influence of Context Learning (Student Presentations and Discussion)

All students should read the following two papers:

Jiang, Y. & Wagner, L.C. (2004): What is learned in spatial contextual cueing – configuration or individual locations? Perception & Psychophysics, 66, 454-463.

Conci, M. & van Muehlenen, A. (2009). Region segmentation and contextual cueing in visual search. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 1514-1524.

Optional Reading:

Higuchi, Y. & Saiki, J. (2017). Implicit learning of spatial configuration occurs without eye movement. Japanese Psychological Research, 59, 122-132.

Review and Feedback Session

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