One of the brain’s primary functions is to promote actions in dynamic, distracting environments. Because distractions divert attention from our primary goals, we must learn to maintain accurate actions under sensory and cognitive distractions. Visuomotor adaptation is a learning process that restores performance when sensorimotor capacities or environmental conditions are abruptly or gradually altered. Prior work showed that learning to counteract an abrupt perturbation under a particular single- or dual-task setting (i.e., attentional context) was associated with better recall under the same conditions. This suggested that the attentional context was encoded during adaptation and used as a recall cue. The current study investigated whether the attentional context (i.e., single vs. dual task) also affected adaptation and recall to a gradual perturbation, which limited awareness of movement errors. During adaptation, participants moved a cursor to a target while learning to counteract a visuomotor rotation that increased from 0° to 45° by 0.3° each trial, with or without performing a secondary task. Relearning was impaired when the attentional context was different between adaptation and recall ( experiment 1), even when the exposure to the attentional context was limited to the early or late half of adaptation ( experiment 2). Changing the secondary task did not affect relearning, indicating that the attentional context, rather than specific stimuli or tasks, was associated with better recall performance ( experiment 3). These findings highlight the importance of cognitive factors, such as attention, in visuomotor adaptation and have implications for learning and rehabilitation paradigms. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Adaptation acquired under single- or dual-task setting, which created an undivided or divided attentional context, respectively, was impaired when relearning occurred under different conditions (i.e., shifting from a dual to single task). Changes to the attentional context impaired relearning when the initial adaptation was to a gradual perturbation. Explicit awareness of the perturbation was not necessary for this effect to be robust, nor was the effect attributable to changes in the secondary task requirements.
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The early attentional pancake: Minimal selection in depth for rapid attentional cueing
There have been conflicting findings on the degree to which rapidly deployed visual attention is selective for depth, and this issue has important implications for attention models. Previous findings have attempted to find depth-based cueing effects on such attention using reaction time (RT) measures for stimuli presented in stereo goggles with a display screen. Results stemming from such approaches have been mixed, depending on whether target/distractor discrimination was required. To help clarify the existence of such depth effects, we have developed a paradigm that measures accuracy rather than RT in an immersive virtual-reality environment, providing a more appropriate context of depth. Three modified Posner Cueing paradigms were run to test for depth-specific rapid attentional selectivity. Participants fixated a cross while attempting to identify a rapidly masked black letter preceded by a red cue that could be valid in depth, side, or both. In Experiment 1a, a potent cueing effect was found for lateral cueing validity, but a weak effect was found for depth despite an extreme difference in virtual depth (1 vs. 300 m). In Experiment 1b, a near-replication of 1a, the lateral effect replicated while the depth effect did not. Finally, in Experiment 2, to increase the depth cue’s effectiveness, the letter matched the cue’s color, and the presentation duration was increased; however, again only a minimal depth-based cueing effect – no greater than that of Experiment 1a – was observed. Thus, we conclude that rapidly deployed attention is driven largely by spatiotopic rather than depth-based information.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1734220
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10341430
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics
- ISSN:
- 1943-3921
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Objective To examine the hypothesis that constant speed is more comfortable than variable speed profiles and may minimize cybersickness.
Background Current best practices for virtual reality (VR) content creation suggest keeping any form of acceleration as short and infrequent as possible to mitigate cybersickness.
Methods In Experiment 1, participants experienced repetitions of simulated linear motion, and in Experiment 2, they experienced repetitions of a circular motion. Three speed profiles were tested in each experiment. Each trial lasted 2 min while standing. Cybersickness was measured using the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) and operationally defined in terms of total severity scores. Postural stability was measured using a Wii Balance Board and operationally defined in terms of center of pressure (COP) path length. Postural measures were decomposed into anterior-posterior and medial-lateral axes and subjected to detrended fluctuation analysis.
Results For both experiments, no significant differences were observed between the three speed profiles in terms of cybersickness or postural stability, and none of the baseline postural measures could predict SSQ scores for the speed profile conditions. An axis effect was observed in both experiments such that normalized COP movement was significantly greater along the anterior-posterior axis than the medial-lateral axis.
Conclusion Results showed no convincing evidence to support the common belief that constant speed is more comfortable than variable speed profiles for scenarios typical of VR applications.
Application The present findings offer guidelines for the design of locomotion techniques involving traversal in VR environments.
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Ren, Jie ; Hohle, Barbara (Ed.)A key question in studies of cognitive development is whether bilingual environments impact higher-cognitive functions. Inconclusive evidence in search of a “bilingual cognitive advantage” has sparked debates on the reliability of these findings. Few studies with infants have examined this question, but most of them include small samples. The current study presents evidence from a large sample of 6- and 10-month-old monolingual- and bilingual-exposed infants (N=152), which includes a longitudinal subset (n=31), who completed a cueing attentional orienting task. The results suggest bilingual infants showed significant developmental gains in latency performance during the condition that was most cognitively demanding (Incongruent). The results also revealed bilingual infants’ performance was associated with their parents’ dual-language switching behavior. Taken together, these results provide support that bilingual experiences (i.e., dual-language mixing) influence infants’ shifting and orienting of attention.more » « less
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Abstract This study investigated whether detection of a performance mistake is followed by adaptive or detrimental effects on subsequent attention and performance. Using a Stroop task with spatial cueing, along with simultaneous EEG and pupillary measurements, we examined evidence bearing on two alternative hypotheses: maladaptive arousal and adaptive control. Error detection, indexed by the error‐related negativity ERP component, was followed by pupil dilation and suppression of EEG oscillations in the alpha band, two indices of arousal that were associated with one another on a trial‐by‐trial basis. On the trials following errors, there was neural evidence of enhanced spatial cueing, manifested in greater hemispheric activation contralateral to the cued visual field. However, this post‐error enhancement was not followed by changes in Stroop or spatial cueing effects in performance, nor by increased attentional cueing effects in ERP responses to targets. Rather, performance tended to be slower and less accurate following errors compared to correct trials, and higher post‐response arousal, indexed by larger pupils, predicted next‐trial slowing and decreased P2 amplitude to targets. Results favor the maladaptive arousal account of post‐error cognitive control and offer only limited support for adaptive control.
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Abstract Previous research has shown that, unlike misspelled common words, misspelled brand names are sensitive to visual letter similarity effects (e.g., is often recognized as a legitimate brand name, but not ). This pattern poses problems for those models that assume that word identification is exclusively based on abstract codes. Here, we investigated the role of visual letter similarity using another type of word often presented in a more homogenous format than common words: city names. We found a visual letter similarity effect for misspelled city names (e.g., was often recognized as a word, but not ) for relatively short durations of the stimuli (200 ms; Experiment 2), but not when the stimuli were presented until response (Experiment 1). Notably, misspelled common words did not show a visual letter similarity effect for brief 200- and 150-ms durations (e.g., was not as often recognized as a word than ; Experiments 3–4). These findings provide further evidence that the consistency in the format of presentations may shape the representation of words in the mental lexicon, which may be more salient in scenarios where processing resources are limited (e.g., brief exposure presentations).
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-022-02529-9
