Global and local priming in a multi-modal context.

Perceptual information can be processed at many different scales, from featural details to entire scenes. Attentional selection of different scales has been studied using hierarchical stimuli, with research elucidating a variety of biases in local and global attentional selection (due to, e.g.

Examining perceptions, selections, and products in undergraduates' learning from multiple resources.

Background: When learning about complex topics using the Internet, students commonly encounter a multitude of textual, non-textual (e.g., images and graphs), and multimedia (e.

Pattern classification of EEG signals reveals perceptual and attentional states.

Pattern classification techniques have been widely used to differentiate neural activity associated with different perceptual, attentional, or other cognitive states, often using fMRI, but more recently with EEG as well. Although these methods have identified EEG patterns (i.e.

Haptic guidance of overt visual attention.

Research has shown that information accessed from one sensory modality can influence perceptual and attentional processes in another modality. Here, we demonstrated a novel crossmodal influence of haptic-shape information on visual attention. Participants visually searched for a target object (e.

Local and global level-priming occurs for hierarchical stimuli composed of outlined, but not filled-in, elements.

When attention is directed to the local or global level of a hierarchical stimulus, attending to that same scale of information is subsequently facilitated. This effect is called level-priming, and in its pure form, it has been dissociated from stimulus- or response-repetition priming. In previous studies, pure level-priming has been demonstrated using hierarchical stimuli composed of alphanumeric forms consisting of lines.

Prism adaptation does not alter object-based attention in healthy participants.

Hemispatial neglect ('neglect') is a disabling condition that can follow damage to the right side of the brain, in which patients show difficulty in responding to or orienting towards objects and events that occur on the left side of space. Symptoms of neglect can manifest in both space- and object-based frames of reference. Although patients can show a combination of these two forms of neglect, they are considered separable and have distinct neurological bases.

Shifting attention in viewer- and object-based reference frames after unilateral brain injury.

The aims of the present study were to investigate the respective roles that object- and viewer-based reference frames play in reorienting visual attention, and to assess their influence after unilateral brain injury. To do so, we studied 16 right hemisphere injured (RHI) and 13 left hemisphere injured (LHI) patients. We used a cueing design that manipulates the location of cues and targets relative to a display comprised of two rectangles (i.

Relative priming of temporal local--global levels in auditory hierarchical stimuli.

Priming is a useful tool for ascertaining the circumstances under which previous experiences influence behavior. Previously, using hierarchical stimuli, we demonstrated (Justus & List, 2005) that selectively attending to one temporal scale of an auditory stimulus improved subsequent attention to a repeated (vs. changed) temporal scale; that is, we demonstrated intertrial auditory temporal level priming.

Prism adaptation reverses the local processing bias in patients with right temporo-parietal junction lesions.

Lesions to the right temporo-parietal cortex commonly result in hemispatial neglect. Lesions to the same area are also associated with hyperattention to local details of a scene and difficulty perceiving the global structure. This local processing bias is an important factor contributing to neglect and may contribute to the higher prevalence of the disorder following right compared with left hemisphere strokes.

Attentional selection and the representation of holes and objects.

We examine whether holes (two separate cutout rectangles in a surface) appearing as if on a homogeneous background produce object-based effects similar to those observed when the same regions appear as separate items in front of that surface (commonly called objects). We used a version of the two-rectangle design described by R. Egly, J.

Visual hemispatial neglect, re-assessed.

Increased computer use in clinical settings offers an opportunity to develop new neuropsychological tests that exploit the control computers have over stimulus dimensions and timing. However, before adopting new tools, empirical validation is necessary. In the current study, our aims were twofold: to describe a computerized adaptive procedure with broad potential for neuropsychological investigations, and to demonstrate its implementation in testing for visual hemispatial neglect.

Inhibition of return and object-based attentional selection.

Visual attention research has revealed that attentional allocation can occur in space- and/or object-based coordinates. Using the direct and elegant design of R. Egly, J.

Auditory priming of frequency and temporal information: effects of lateralised presentation.

Asymmetric distribution of function between the cerebral hemispheres has been widely investigated in the auditory modality. The current approach borrows heavily from visual local-global research in an attempt to determine whether, as in vision, local-global auditory processing is lateralised. In vision, lateralised local-global processing likely relies on spatial frequency information.

A mismatch negativity study of local-global auditory processing.

We used mismatch negativity (MMN) to examine structural encoding of local and global auditory patterns in perceptual memory. Unlike previous MMN studies of local-global auditory perceptual organization that used interval-contour stimuli, here we presented hierarchical stimuli in which local pattern organization formed global patterns. Importantly, our stimuli allowed independent manipulation of the two structural levels.

Auditory attention to frequency and time: an analogy to visual local-global stimuli.

Two priming experiments demonstrated exogenous attentional persistence to the fundamental auditory dimensions of frequency (Experiment 1) and time (Experiment 2). In a divided-attention task, participants responded to an independent dimension, the identification of three-tone sequence patterns, for both prime and probe stimuli. The stimuli were specifically designed to parallel the local-global hierarchical letter stimuli of [Navon D.