Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

Attentional capture with rapidly changing attentional control settings.
The classic theory of spatial attention hypothesized 2 modes, voluntary and involuntary. Folk, Remington, and Johnston (1992) reported that even involuntary attention capture by stimuli requires a match between stimulus properties and what the observer is looking for. This surprising conclusion has been confirmed by many subsequent studies. In these studies, however, the observer typically looks for the same property throughout an entire session. Real-world behavior, in contrast, often requires frequent shifts in attentional set. The present study examined whether such shifts weaken attentional settings, allowing task-irrelevant objects to capture attention. Surprisingly, fluctuating control settings did not increase vulnerability to capture by salient stimuli (color singletons and abrupt onsets). We conclude that the attention control system is remarkably flexible, able to rapidly and fully adopt new settings and abandon old settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Thinking about the future moves attention to the right.
Previous studies have shown that past and future temporal concepts are spatially represented (past being located to the left and future to the right in a mental time line). This study aims at further investigating the nature of this space–time conceptual metaphor, by testing whether the temporal reference of words orient spatial attention or rather prime a congruent left/right response. A modified version of the spatial cuing paradigm was used in which a word’s temporal reference must be kept in working memory whilst participants carry out a spatial localization (Experiment 1) or a direction discrimination, spatial Stroop task (Experiment 2). The results showed that the mere activation of the past or future concepts both oriented attention and primed motor responses to left or right space, respectively, and these effects were independent. Moreover, in spite of the fact that such time-reference cues were nonpredictive, the use of a short and a long stimulus onset asynchrony in Experiment 3 showed that these cues modulated spatial attention as typical central cues like arrows do, suggesting a common mechanism for these two types of cuing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Asymmetry in object substitution masking occurs relative to the direction of spatial attention shift.
A sparse mask that persists beyond the duration of a target can reduce its visibility, a phenomenon called object substitution masking. Y. Jiang and M. M. Chun (2001a) found an asymmetric pattern of substitution masking such that a mask on the peripheral side of the target caused stronger substitution masking than on the central side. Assuming spatial attention was focused toward the target, the peripheral and central masks were located in the same and opposite direction of an attentional path with reference to the target in their study. We hypothesized that this asymmetric mask configuration relative to the attentional shift contributes to asymmetric substitution masking. To test this hypothesis, we conducted four experiments among which the presence or absence of the center–periphery relationship and the presence or absence of the asymmetric mask configuration were manipulated independently and orthogonally. The results suggest that asymmetric substitution masking occurs relative to the direction of spatial attention irrespective of the central–peripheral relation. We propose that the asymmetry in substitution masking might be explained by attentional momentum associated with orienting toward the target. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
The influence of alertness on spatial and nonspatial components of visual attention.
Three experiments investigated whether spatial and nonspatial components of visual attention would be influenced by changes in (healthy, young) subjects’ level of alertness and whether such effects on separable components would occur independently of each other. The experiments used a no-cue/alerting-cue design with varying cue-target stimulus onset asynchronies in two different whole-report paradigms based on Bundesen’s (1990) theory of visual attention, which permits spatial and nonspatial components of selective attention to be assessed independently. The results revealed the level of alertness to affect both the spatial distribution of attentional weighting and processing speed, but not visual short-term memory capacity, with the effect on processing speed preceding that on the spatial distribution of attentional weighting. This pattern indicates that the level of alertness influences both spatial and nonspatial component mechanisms of visual attention and that these two effects develop independently of each other; moreover, it suggests that intrinsic and phasic alertness effects involve the same processing route, on which spatial and nonspatial mechanisms are mediated by independent processing systems that are activated, due to increased alertness, in temporal succession. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Repetition blindness for rotated objects.
Repetition blindness (RB) is the finding that observers often miss the repetition of an item within a rapid stream of words or objects. Recent studies have shown that RB for objects is largely unaffected by variations in viewpoint between the repeated items. In 5 experiments, we tested RB under different axes of rotation, with different types of stimuli (line drawings and shaded images, intact and split), using both novel and familiar objects. Although RB was largely viewpoint invariant, in most experiments, RB was reduced for small (0°) and large (180°) viewpoint differences relative to intermediate rotations. However, these deviations from invariance were eliminated when object images were split, breaking the holistic coherence of the object. These findings suggest that RB is due mainly to the activation of object representations from local diagnostic features, but can be modulated by priming on the basis of view similarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Role of task-directed attention in nonconscious and conscious response priming by form and color.
Prior research on visual priming suggests that during nonconscious processing attention can be directed to single stimulus dimensions such as form or color. In the current experiment, nonconscious priming was compared to conscious priming by employing masking techniques that render primes invisible (masked) or visible (unmasked) to the observers. Observers were asked to respond to the form, the color, or the combination of form and color of the mask-probe that followed either a masked or an unmasked prime. The prime varied in its form and color congruency relative to the mask-probe. The results indicate (1) that during nonconscious processing a task-irrelevant stimulus feature can be attentionally filtered out, (2) that during nonconscious processing only separated stimulus features can be attended, and (3) that during conscious processing the conjunction of stimulus features comprising an object can be attended. Furthermore, the results indicate that at the nonconscious level stimuli are processed at an individual-feature level, while at the conscious level the stimuli can additionally be processed at a whole-object level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Object trimming: When masking dots alter rather than replace target representations.
Five experiments demonstrate that when dots appear beside a briefly presented target object, and persist on view longer than the target, the flanked object is perceptually altered by the dots. Three methods are used to explore this object trimming effect. Experiments 1–3 assess participants’ conscious reports of trimmed digits, Experiment 4 uses repetition priming to explore the target representation, and Experiment 5 examines the perception of apparent motion in trimmed targets. Results of all three methods indicate that object trimming is influenced by mechanisms of perceptual grouping that operate on target representations prior to conscious access. Separate contributions from visual crowding and backward masking are also identified. These results imply that common-onset masking does not always result from the target being substituted by the mask, but that target and mask can sometimes maintain separate mental representations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Parallel processing in face perception.
The authors examined face perception models with regard to the functional and temporal organization of facial identity and expression analysis. Participants performed a manual 2-choice go/no-go task to classify faces, where response hand depended on facial familiarity (famous vs. unfamiliar) and response execution depended on facial expression (happy vs. angry). Behavioral and electrophysiological markers of information processing—in particular, the lateralized readiness potential (LRP)—were recorded to assess the time course of facial identity and expression processing. The duration of facial identity and expression processes was manipulated in separate experiments, which allowed testing the differential predictions of alternative face perception models. Together, the reaction time and LRP findings indicate a parallel architecture of facial identity and expression analysis in which the analysis of facial expression relies on information about identity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Does face inversion change spatial frequency tuning?
The authors examined spatial frequency (SF) tuning of upright and inverted face identification using an SF variant of the Bubbles technique (F. Gosselin & P. G. Schyns, 2001). In Experiment 1, they validated the SF Bubbles technique in a plaid detection task. In Experiments 2a–c, the SFs used for identifying upright and inverted inner facial features were investigated. Although a clear inversion effect was present (mean accuracy was 24% higher and response times 455 ms shorter for upright faces), SF tunings were remarkably similar in both orientation conditions (mean r = .98; an SF band of 1.9 octaves centered at 9.8 cycles per face width for faces of about 6°). In Experiments 3a and b, the authors demonstrated that their technique is sensitive to both subtle bottom-up and top-down induced changes in SF tuning, suggesting that the null results of Experiments 2a–c are real. The most parsimonious explanation of the findings is provided by the quantitative account of the face inversion effect: The same information is used for identifying upright and inverted inner facial features, but processing has greater sensitivity with the former. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Across-task conflict regulation: A replication failure.
Fernandez-Duque and Knight (2008, Experiment 4) described an across-task effect of endogenously generated, anticipatory control: A cue that predicted conflict in an upcoming Eriksen flanker task modulated conflict regulation in a subsequent number Stroop task. In 3 experiments, 1 of which included an exact replication condition, we failed to observe the expected across-task effect. However, a reanalysis of our data revealed a conflict adaptation effect: Number task processing on incongruent trials was influenced by random fluctuations in flanker task performance. Our findings, alongside reports of reactive across-task conflict regulation (Freitas, Bahar, Yang, & Banai, 2007), challenge Fernandez-Duque and Knight’s claim that across-task effects are a distinctive feature of anticipatory cognitive control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Analyzing the generality of conflict adaptation effects.
Conflict adaptation effects refer to the reduction of interference when the incongruent stimulus occurs immediately after an incongruent trial, compared with when it occurs after a congruent trial. The present study analyzes the key conditions that lead to adaptation effects that are specific to the type of conflict involved versus those that are conflict general. In the first 2 experiments, we combined 2 types of conflict for which compatibility arises from clearly different sources in terms of dimensional overlap while keeping the task context constant across conflict types. We found a clear pattern of specificity on conflict adaptation across conflict types. In subsequent experiments, we tested whether this pattern could be accounted in terms of feature integration processes contributing differently to repetition versus alternation of conflict types. The results clearly indicated that feature integration was not key to generating conflict type specificity on conflict adaptation. The data are consistent with there being separate modes of control for different types of cognitive conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Masked priming from orthographic neighbors: An ERP investigation.
Two experiments combined masked priming with event-related potential (ERP) recordings to examine effects of primes that are orthographic neighbors of target words. Experiment 1 compared effects of repetition primes with effects of primes that were high-frequency orthographic neighbors of low-frequency targets (e.g., faute-faune [error-wildlife]), and Experiment 2 compared the same word neighbor primes with nonword neighbor primes (e.g., aujel-autel [altar]). Word neighbor primes showed the standard inhibitory priming effect in lexical decision latencies that sharply contrasted with the facilitatory effects of nonword neighbor primes. This contrast was most evident in the ERP signal starting at around 300 ms posttarget onset and continuing through the bulk of the N400 component. In this time window, repetition primes and nonword neighbor primes generated more positive-going waveforms than unrelated primes, whereas word neighbor primes produced null effects. The results are discussed with respect to possible mechanisms of lexical competition during visual word recognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Is the orthographic/phonological onset a single unit in reading aloud?
Two main theories of visual word recognition have been developed regarding the way orthographic units in printed words map onto phonological units in spoken words. One theory suggests that a string of single letters or letter clusters corresponds to a string of phonemes (Coltheart, 1978; Venezky, 1970), while the other suggests that a string of single letters or letter clusters corresponds to coarser phonological units, for example, onsets and rimes (Treiman & Chafetz, 1987). These theoretical assumptions were critical for the development of coding schemes in prominent computational models of word recognition and reading aloud. In a reading-aloud study, we tested whether the human reading system represents the orthographic/phonological onset of printed words and nonwords as single units or as separate letters/phonemes. Our results, which favored a letter and not an onset-coding scheme, were successfully simulated by the dual-route cascaded (DRC) model (Coltheart, Rastle, Perry, Langdon, & Ziegler, 2001). A separate experiment was carried out to further adjudicate between 2 versions of the DRC model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
The bounds on flexibility in speech perception.
Dutch listeners were exposed to the English theta sound (as in bath), which replaced [f] in /f/-final Dutch words or, for another group, [s] in /s/-final words. A subsequent identity-priming task showed that participants had learned to interpret theta as, respectively, /f/ or /s/. Priming effects were equally strong when the exposure sound was an ambiguous [fs]-mixture and when primes contained unambiguous fricatives. When the exposure sound was signal-correlated noise, listeners interpreted it as the spectrally similar /f/, irrespective of lexical bias during exposure. Perceptual learning about speech is thus constrained by spectral similarity between the input and established phonological categories, but within those limits, adjustments are thorough enough that even nonnative sounds can be treated fully as native sounds. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Universal constraints on the sound structure of language: Phonological or acoustic?
Languages are known to exhibit universal restrictions on sound structure. The source of such restrictions, however, is contentious: Do they reflect abstract phonological knowledge, or properties of linguistic experience and auditory perception? We address this question by investigating the restrictions on onset structure. Across languages, onsets of small sonority distances are dispreferred (e.g., lb is dispreferred to bn). Previous research with aural materials demonstrates such preferences modulate the perception of unattested onsets by English speakers: Universally ill-formed onsets are systematically misperceived (e.g., lba ? leba) relative to well-formed onsets (e.g., bn). Here, we show that the difficulty to process universally ill-formed onsets extends to printed materials. Auxiliary tests indicate that such difficulties reflect phonological, rather than orthographic knowledge, and regression analyses demonstrate such knowledge goes beyond the statistical properties of the lexicon. These findings suggest that speakers have abstract, possibly universal, phonological knowledge that is general with respect to input modality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Effects of semantic context and feedback on perceptual learning of speech processed through an acoustic simulation of a cochlear implant.
The effect of feedback and materials on perceptual learning was examined in listeners with normal hearing who were exposed to cochlear implant simulations. Generalization was most robust when feedback paired the spectrally degraded sentences with their written transcriptions, promoting mapping between the degraded signal and its acoustic–phonetic representation. Transfer-appropriate processing theory suggests that such feedback was most successful because the original learning conditions were reinstated at testing: Performance was facilitated when both training and testing contained degraded stimuli. In addition, the effect of semantic context on generalization was assessed by training listeners on meaningful or anomalous sentences. Training with anomalous sentences was as effective as that with meaningful sentences, suggesting that listeners were encouraged to use acoustic–phonetic information to identify speech than to make predictions from semantic context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Perceptual constraints in phonotactic learning.
Structural regularities in language have often been attributed to symbolic or statistical general purpose computations, whereas perceptual factors influencing such generalizations have received less interest. Here, we use phonotactic-like constraints as a case study to ask whether the structural properties of specific perceptual and memory mechanisms may facilitate the acquisition of grammatical-like regularities. Participants learned that the consonants C1 and C2 had to come from distinct sets in words of the form C1VccVC2 (where the critical consonants were in word edges) but not in words of the form cVC1C2Vc (where the critical consonants were in word middles). Control conditions ruled out attentional or psychophysical difficulties in word middles. Participants did, however, learn such regularities in word middles when natural consonant classes were used instead of arbitrary consonant sets. We conclude that positional generalizations may be learned preferentially using edge-based positional codes, but that participants can also use other mechanisms when other linguistic cues are given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Do curved reaching movements emerge from competing perceptions? A reply to van der Wel et al. (2009).
Spivey, Grosjean, and Knoblich (2005) reported smoothly curved reaching movements, via computer-mouse tracking, which suggested a continuously evolving flow of distributed lexical activation patterns into motor movement during a phonological competitor task. For example, when instructed to click the “candy,” participants’ mouse-cursor trajectories curved conspicuously toward a picture of a candle before landing on the picture of the candy. In their commentary on this work, van der Wel, Eder, Mitchel, Walsh, and Rosenbaum (2009) describe a quantitative simulation of reaching movements that stands as an existence proof that a discrete-processing speech perception system can feed into a continuous-processing motor movement system to produce reach trajectories similar to that observed by Spivey et al. In this reply, we describe eye-tracking evidence, new mouse-tracking evidence, and a dynamic version of van der Wel et al’s simulation, all of which suggest that competing perceptual representations may instigate the preparation of multiple movement plans that are merged in a dynamically weighted average, thus producing a single smoothly curved movement. Like van der Wel et al., we are optimistic that an emphasis on the computational linking hypothesis between hypothesized perceptual representations and recorded motor movements will elucidate the discrete versus continuous aspects of perceptual, cognitive, and motor processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance - Vol 36, Iss 1