Perceptual load affects spatial and nonspatial visual selection processes: an event-related brain potential study.

One major question toward understanding selective attention regards the efficiency of selection. One theory contends that this efficiency in vision is determined primarily by the perceptual load (PL) imposed by the relevant stimuli; if this load is high enough to fill attentional capacity, irrelevant stimuli will be excluded before they interfere with task performance, but if this load is lower the spare capacity will be directed automatically to the irrelevant information, which will then interfere with task performance. The current study attempts to test and extend this theory in order to understand better the role of PL by examining its effects on event-related brain potentials (ERPs), voltage fluctuations recorded at the scalp that reflect underlying cognitive operations.

The effects of interstimulus interval on event-related indices of attention: an auditory selective attention test of perceptual load theory.

Objective: We examined the impact of perceptual load by manipulating interstimulus interval (ISI) in two auditory selective attention studies that varied in the difficulty of the target discrimination.

Methods: In the paradigm, channels were separated by frequency and target/deviant tones were softer in intensity. Three ISI conditions were presented: fast (300ms), medium (600ms) and slow (900ms).

Development of auditory selective attention: event-related potential measures of channel selection and target detection.

In this study, we examined developmental changes in auditory selective attention using both electrophysiological (Nd, P3b) and behavioral measures while two groups of children (9- and 12-year-olds) and adults were engaged in a two-channel selective attention task. Channel was determined by frequency (1000 or 2000 Hz). Targets in one condition were shorter than the standards (duration target) and in the other were softer (intensity target).

Differential effects of practice on the executive processes used for truthful and deceptive responses: an event-related brain potential study.

Behavior and event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded while participants made truthful and deceptive responses about previously memorized words under three instructional conditions: consistent truthful, consistent deceptive, and random deceptive. To determine if practice affected the deception-related activity we reported previously [R. Johnson, Jr.

The contribution of executive processes to deceptive responding.

We measured behavioral responses (RT) and recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs) when participants made truthful and deceptive responses about perceived and remembered stimuli. Participants performed an old/new recognition test under three instructional conditions: Consistent Truthful, Consistent Deceptive and Random Deceptive. Compared to Consistent Truthful responses, Consistent Deceptive responses to both perceived and remembered stimuli produced the same pattern of less accurate, slower and more variable responses and larger medial frontal negativities (MFN).

The deceptive response: effects of response conflict and strategic monitoring on the late positive component and episodic memory-related brain activity.

The cognitive processes and neural mechanisms underlying deceptive responses were studied using behavioral responses (RT) and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) while participants made truthful and deceptive responses about perceived and remembered stimuli. Memorized words were presented in a recognition paradigm under three instructional conditions: Consistent Truthful, Consistent Deceptive, Random Deceptive. Responses that conflicted with the truth about both perceived and remembered items produced the same pattern of slower RTs and decreased LPC amplitudes.