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Author(s): John D. McCarthy [sup.1] , Phil Reed [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) https://ror.org/053fq8t95, grid.4827.9, 0000 0001 0658 8800, Department of Psychology, Swansea University, , Singleton Park, SA2 8PP, Swansea, UK [...], Novel pop-out refers to the relative ease in locating an unfamiliar target against a background of familiar distractors in visual search tasks. For instance, when one novel item is presented along with three familiar items, it is located faster than when the target is itself familiar, or when all items are novel or familiar. However, the reliability and generality of the novel pop-out effect has been questioned. Three experiments with human participants examined the reliability of within-array novel pop-out effects, and explored the conditions under which these effects can be obtained. The degree to which subjects could identify a novel item when presented against a background of familiar items, or against a background of other novel items, was assessed using two different visual search tasks. Experiments 1 and 3 replicated the theoretically important within-array novel pop-out effect, using the original procedure adopted by Johnston and colleagues. In the current studies, the array items were rendered novel or familiar by virtue of their previous absence or presence, respectively, in a pre-exposure phase, which allowed greater control over their novelty or familiarity. However, the use of this procedure abolished the typically-reported advantage for all-familiar versus all-novel arrays (Experiments 2 and 3). It is suggested that any model of attention should be sensitive to the present goal state of the subject, and that the literature on latent inhibition may provide one such mechanism through which such a set of effects could be explained.

Author(s): Zheng Wei [sup.1] [sup.2] , Mengnuo Dai [sup.1] [sup.2] , Feng Du [sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) https://ror.org/034t30j35, grid.9227.e, 0000 0001 1957 3309, Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute [...], Previous studies have shown that multiple features in attentional control settings have different effects on guiding attention. Distractors matching the selection feature of the target capture attention, but distractors matching the response feature do not necessarily capture attention when they were presented in task-relevant locations. The present study examined how distractors matching either the response feature or the selection feature affect guidance of attention and subsequent processing when they were presented in task-irrelevant locations. The results of four experiments consistently showed that distractors matching the selection feature (target-color) were sufficient to capture attention and facilitated subsequent processing no matter whether they match the response feature (letter shape) or not. However, distractors matching only the response feature but not the selection feature were suppressed reactively after their initial attentional capture at task-irrelevant locations. Thus, the selection feature and the response feature in attentional control settings have different effects on guiding attention.

Author(s): Isobel G. Bond [sup.1] , Keitaro Machida [sup.1] , Katherine A. Johnson [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) https://ror.org/01ej9dk98, grid.1008.9, 0000 0001 2179 088X, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of [...], Sustaining attention is an important cognitive process for everyday functioning and arousal is thought to underpin its performance. Primate studies depict an inverted-u relation between sustained attention and arousal, in which sustained attention performance is most affected at the extreme levels of arousal and peak performance aligns with moderate arousal. Human research findings are, however, inconsistent. This study aimed to investigate the effects of arousal on sustained attention performance in humans using two approaches-a small-N study with an inbuilt replication to test within-participant variation, and a larger sample assessing between-participant variation. The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) was used to measure sustained attention performance and the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) was used to measure arousal. In the small-N study five participants completed the SART and KSS once an hour between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., repeated two weeks later. Significant, curvilinear variation in KSS across time-of-day was found. A linear association between SART response time variability (sigma) and KSS was noted, however no other consistent associations between the SART and KSS were found. In the large-N study, 161 participants completed the SART and KSS once, at a time of day of their choosing. There were no significant relations between SART measures and the KSS, indicating that subjective sleepiness was not related to sustained attention performance. Overall, the hypothesized inverted-u relation between arousal and sustained attention performance was not found. The results suggested that diurnal arousal variation does not modify sustained attention performance in adults.

Author(s): Nele Vanbilsen [sup.1] , Valentina Pergher [sup.2] , Marc M. Van Hulle [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) https://ror.org/05f950310, grid.5596.f, 0000 0001 0668 7884, Department of Neurosciences, Laboratory for Neuro- & [...], Although recent studies showed the beneficial effect of video game training, it is still unclear whether the used strategy plays an important role in enhancing performance in the trained cognitive ability and in promoting transfers to other cognitive domains. We investigated behaviourally the effect of strategy on the outcomes of visual attentional control game training and both behaviourally and in terms of EEG-based event-related potentials (ERPs), the effect on other cognitive domains. We recruited 21 healthy adults, divided into three groups: a strategy-training group (STG) instructed to use a specific strategy, a non-strategy training group (NSTG) that self-developed their strategy, and a passive control group (PCG) that underwent only pre- and post-tests. Our results showed that the use of a specific strategy made the STG participants respond faster to the trained contrast level task, but not on the contour exercises task. Furthermore, both STG and NSTG showed pre- and post-transfers, however no significant differences were found when comparing the groups, for both behaviour and ERP responses. In conclusion, we believe these preliminary results provide evidence for the importance of strategy choice in cognitive training protocols.

Author(s): Ling Huang [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] , Yu Chen [sup.2] , Shiqi Shen [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] , Haoxian Ye [sup.2] , Shipei Ou [sup.2] , Xilin Zhang [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] [...], Although attention can be directed at certain objects, how object-based attention spreads within an object and whether this spread interacts with awareness remain unclear. Using a modified spatial cuing paradigm with backward masking, we addressed these issues with either visible or invisible displays presenting the real (Experiment 1) and illusory (Experiment 2) U-shaped objects (UOs), whose ends and middles, the possible locations of the cue and target, have iso-eccentric distances from the fixation. These equidistant ends and middles of UOs offered us a unique opportunity to examine whether attention gradually spreads within a given object, i.e., within an UO, attention spreads from its cued-end to uncued-end via the uncued-middle. Despite the visibility (visible or invisible) of UOs, both experiments supported this gradual spread manner by showing a faster response of human participants (male and female) to the target in the uncued-middle than that in the uncued-end. Our results thus indicate a gradual spread of object-based attention and further reveal that this gradual spread is independent of both the "visual objectness" (whether the object is defined as the real or illusory boundaries) and conscious access to objects.

Author(s): Ebony A Walker [sup.1] , Robin L Aupperle [sup.1] [sup.2] , Martin P Paulus [sup.1] [sup.2] , Maria Ironside [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.417423.7, 0000 0004 0512 8863, Laureate [...], The use of less effective emotional regulation strategies, such as distraction, may relate to greater reliance on avoidance behavior under conflict. Tulsa 1000 participants (n = 478) were recruited trans diagnostically and completed an approach avoidance conflict (AAC) task. Following the task, participants reported their use of distraction as an emotional regulation strategy. Quantile regression showed negative main effects of distraction and age on approach behavior under conflict. This suggests that individuals who use distraction as a regulation strategy are more likely to engage in avoidance behavior under conflict, which has treatment implications.

Author(s): Shao-zhen Feng [sup.1] , Chang Liu [sup.1] , Jun-yi Hao [sup.1] , Rong Shi [sup.1] [sup.2] , Ming-ming Zhang [sup.1] , Mai-er-yan Chen [sup.1] , Jing Luo [sup.3] Author [...], The prevailing view emphasizes the up-regulation of positive emotions, as they are essential for individuals to expand flexibility of thought, maintain healthy mental state, and nurture harmonious interpersonal relationships. However, an increasing number of studies have found that excessive positive emotions can be maladaptive, both clinically and non-clinically, especially when the intensity and duration do not match the context and personal expectations. Traditional Chinese medicine advocates the appropriate expression of positive emotions, and it has introduced the emotion regulation strategy of sadness-counteracts-joy (SCJ) to down-regulate excessive positive emotions. The present study examined the efficacy of distraction, reappraisal, and sadness-counteracts-joy (SCJ) in the down-regulation of high-intensity positive emotions. Twenty-one participants (18-30 years old) were sampled, self-reported data were collected, and late positive potentials (LPP) in the regulation task were analyzed. The results showed that (1) the three strategies were effective in the self-reported rating, and the participants perceived SCJ and distraction as more effective than reappraisal; (2) the three strategies all reduced the self-reported positive emotion valence and arousal, but SCJ led to negative valence deflection; (3) both distraction and reappraisal significantly reduced the LPP amplitudes during the early LPP window, and the attenuation of reappraisal lasted for almost the whole implementation; and (4) the LPP for SCJ was consistently the same as that for the free view and did not differ significantly throughout the whole-time window. These results provide preliminary neurophysiological evidence for SCJ and suggest that SCJ is a strategy that differs from distraction and reappraisal.

Author(s): Lingxia Fan [sup.1] [sup.2] , Liuting Diao [sup.3] , Mengsi Xu [sup.4] , Xuemin Zhang [sup.5] [sup.6] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.203507.3, 0000 0000 8950 5267, Department of Psychology, Ningbo [...], Whether multiple representations in visual working memory (VWM) can simultaneously guide attention is controversial. The multiple-item-template (MIT) hypothesis holds that multiple VWM representations can be active to guide visual attention simultaneously, whereas the single-item-template (SIT) hypothesis argues that only one VWM representation can interact with attention at a time. Recent study form (Fan et al., Acta Psychologica 192:126-137, 2019) provided strong evidence on MIT through the method of comparing the patterns of guidance effects in different experimental conditions. In the present study, we aimed to reexamine SIT and MIT by sharing a new condition wherein two search distractors match the single memory representation, using the original Fan et al. tilted-line search task. The guidance effect when two colored-shapes were held in VWM and both were present as distractors in the search array were observed and equal to that when the single colored-shape in VWM matched two of the distractors, which is consistent with the hypothesis of MIT. Moreover, the comparison on the degree of linear fitting between the actual data and two hypothesized models according to SIT and MIT showed that the Model of MIT fits the data best with a higher R.sup.2 of 0.125.

Author(s): Meng Sun [sup.1] , Xi Jia [sup.2] , Fang Liu [sup.3] [sup.4] , Ping Wei [sup.1] , Lixia Cui [sup.1] , Qin Zhang [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.253663.7, 0000 [...], Fearful faces could be processed preferentially relative to neutral faces. However, it is still unclear whether the advantage of fear depends on temporal attentional resources. We used the "attentional blink" (AB) paradigm to investigate the role of temporal attention in the processing of fear. We manipulated the emotionality (fear, neutral) of the second target (T2), and T1-T2 interval time (lag 3, lag 8). Four experiments were designed to reduce gradually the available attentional resources for emotional T2 by manipulating the number of letters in the letter search task (Experiments 1 and 3) or in the letter working memory task (Experiment 2 and 4) in the T1 task. The results showed that the AB magnitude of fearful T2 was smaller than that of neutral T2, and this effect was not influenced by T1 difficulty in Experiment 1 (letter search task: 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 letters) and Experiment 2 (letter working memory task: 1, 2, 3, and 4 letters), in which the T2 task was the intact face detection task. In Experiment 3, when the T2 was gender discrimination task, the AB magnitude of fearful T2 was smaller than that of neutral T2 in the low and medium T1- difficulty conditions (2 and 4 letters in the letter search task), but not in the high T1-difficulty condition (6 letters in the letter search task). Experiment 4 was a replication of Experiment 3, but with the working memory T1 task used in Experiment 2. As expected, the results of Experiment 4 replicated the results of Experiment 3 and provided more evidence that the processing advantage of fearful T2 was modulated by T1 difficulty. These results suggested that the priority of fear required attentional resources.

Author(s): Saisai Hu [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] , Dawei Liu [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] , Yunfei Gao [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] , Lujian Xiong [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] , Dongyang Yao [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] [...], Different types of objects that are overlapped or adjacent in space usually have close semantic relationships in real-world scenes. Previous studies have found that different types of objects can elicit the object-based effects and have confirmed that these object-based effects, which are just overlapped, cannot be additive. However, it is still unclear whether object-based effects induced by different types of objects can be additive if they have a close semantic relationship. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to investigate whether and how semantic matching affected the additive effects of object-based attention by adopting the variant of the two-rectangle paradigm and simultaneously/solely presenting lexically defined and geometrically defined objects (Experiment 1) or real objects (Experiment 2). We found that space- and object-based effects were observed for different types of stimuli. The difference in the space-based effects among the geometric only, Chinese words only, and semantically mismatched and semantically matched conditions was not significant. However, the object-based effects were larger for the semantically matched condition than those for semantically mismatched, geometric only and Chinese words only conditions, which were not different from one another. These results suggest that different types of objects can not only steadily induce object-based effects, but also give rise to the additive effects of object-based attention depending on whether they have close semantic relationships.

Author(s): Johannes Wagemann [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.448722.f, 0000 0001 0667 3618, Institute for Waldorf Education, Inclusion and Interculturalism, Alanus University, , Campus Mannheim, Am Exerzierplatz 21, D-68167, Mannheim, Germany [...], In perceptual psychology, audition and introspection have not yet received as much attention as other topics (e.g., vision) and methods (third-person paradigms). Practical examples and theoretical considerations show that it nevertheless seems promising to treat both topics in conjunction to gain insights into basic structures of attention regulation and respective agentive awareness. To this end, an empirical study on voluntary auditory change was conducted with a non-reactive first-person design. Data were analyzed with a mixed methods approach and compared with an analogous study on visual reversal. Qualitative hierarchical coding and explorative statistics yield a cross-modal replication of frequency patterns of mental activity as well as significant differences between the modalities. On this basis, the role of mental agency in perception is refined in terms of different levels of intention and discussed in the context of the philosophical mental action debate as well as of the Global Workspace/Working Memory account. As a main result, this work suggests the existence and structure of a gradual and developable agentive attention awareness on which voluntary attention regulation can build, and which justifies speaking, in a certain sense, of attentional self-perception.

Author(s): Grace Packard [sup.1] , Anthony Molloy [sup.1] , Page L. Anderson [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.256304.6, 0000 0004 1936 7400, Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, , Page Anderson, [...], Attention and attention control are central to definitions of mindfulness and are implicated in the etiology and maintenance of social anxiety disorder, yet no study has examined the relationship among them within a clinical sample, the purpose of the current research. This study tested the hypothesis that self-reported trait mindfulness would be negatively correlated with overall attention bias towards threat and attention bias variability using a facial dot probe task. Forty-one adults diagnosed with social anxiety disorder completed the Mindfulness Attentional Awareness Scale and a facial dot probe task at two sessions one week apart. Average attention bias towards threat was measured using a traditional aggregate mean index (MacLeod et al., Journal of Abnormal Psychology 95:15-20, 1986) and using a newly developed index calculated with trial level bias scores (Zvielli et al., Clinical Psychological Science 3:772-788, 2015). Trial level bias scores were also used to measure attention bias variability. There were no significant correlations between mindfulness and the traditional index of attention bias (p's > .05). There were significant negative correlations between trait mindfulness and attention bias towards threat, r = -.367, p = .018, as well as attention bias variability, r = -.430, p = .005, when calculated with trial level bias scores, but only at the second assessment. This study provides the first evidence of a link between trait mindfulness and mean attention bias towards threat and attention bias variability in adults with social anxiety disorder.

Author(s): Yunfei Guo [sup.1] , Jiaqun Gan [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.256922.8, 0000 0000 9139 560X, School of Education, Henan University, , Jinming Road, Longting District, Kaifeng, China Introduction Prospective [...], Previous studies have found that behavior training can improve the performance of time-based prospective memory (TBPM). However, whether the training effect could be transferred to non-training conditions was related to the transferability of TBPM training. This study was the first to explore the phenomenon under different background conditions. In Experiment 1, we focused on whether the training effect of TBPM could be transferred from an easy ongoing task (1-back task) to a difficult ongoing task (2-back task), while Experiment 2 was the reverse. The results of the two studies showed that the training effect of TBPM could only be transferred from a 2-back task to a 1-back task, which indicates that TBPM training is easily affected by attention. The transferability of TBPM training was related to the scope of its training effect. The finding of this study has significance in application, since it shows that habits we have formed more easily play a role in a relaxed environment.

Author(s): Reyhan Tunç [sup.1] , Simay Ikier [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.10359.3e, 0000 0001 2331 4764, Department of Psychology, Bahcesehir University, , Yildiz Mh. Çiragan Caddesi, Osmanpasa Mektebi Sokak 4-6, [...], Aging is associated with declines in attention, but also with a tendency to attend to emotionally positive information. When attention is engaged in an ongoing task, an unexpected stimulus may not be detected, resulting in inattentional blindness. Inattentional blindness increases in older age, due to reduced attentional capacity. In the present study, age differences in inattentional blindness to emotional unexpected stimulus were investigated. Younger and older adults completed an inattentional blindness task in which a positive and a negative unexpected stimulus appeared concurrently while attention was engaged in a counting task. Overall, the findings replicated previous results showing greater inattentional blindness for older adults. While both groups were more likely to detect the positive stimulus, this tendency was stronger in older adults. The participants who detected only the positive stimulus were more likely to be the older ones. There were no group differences in the detection of the negative stimulus. The results are partially consistent with age-related positivity effect, demonstrating that older adults' positive mood affects their attentional filter. The results emphasize the role of emotional and motivational changes in older age and show that higher inattentional blindness for older adults cannot solely be explained by reductions in attentional capacity.

Author(s): Liz Yuanxi Lee [sup.1] , Thomas Talhelm [sup.3] , Xuemin Zhang [sup.1] [sup.2] , Bin Hu [sup.4] [sup.5] [sup.6] , Xin Lv [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.20513.35, 0000 0004 [...], Does cognitive style have influence functions? In this study, we build on the existing literature (e.g., McKone et al., 2010 (See CR34); Hakim et al., 2016 (See CR18)) in providing answers to the question. We anticipated that the type of attitude tendency (i.e., holistic or analytic, Nisbett et al., 2001 (See CR39)) is somehow related to the perceptual processing ability applied in the Navon task (Navon, 1977 (See CR37)). By pre-screening for holistic and analytic thinkers from 289 participants, we adapted a global-local task. We manipulated the density of local targets to explore a more detailed discrepancy between the local-global perceptual systems of people with different cognitive styles. We found that holistic thinkers responded faster (at the same level of accuracy) on both global and local tasks. These data were interpreted to suggest that holistic thinkers might better handle divided-attention tasks than analytic thinkers.

Author(s): Daisuke Ito [sup.1] , Asuka Watanabe [sup.2] , Kaori Osawa [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.411533.1, 0000 0001 2182 295X, Department Clinical Psychology, Graduate School of Education, Hyogo University of [...], Recently, the effects of mindfulness-based interventions for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been studied. However, we lack knowledge of the processes or mechanisms through which mindfulness influences resilience or promotes recovery following exposure to trauma. In this study, we examine the process by which mindfulness and cognitive-behavioral factors such as posttraumatic negative cognition and avoidance behaviors are associated with reduced PTSD-like symptoms. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 885 university students, using the Trauma Experience Questionnaire, Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist, revised Ways of Coping Checklist, and a brief version of the Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory. Data from 254 participants who experienced trauma with PTSD-like symptoms were analyzed. The final model using SEM indicated no direct association of mindful attention awareness on PTSD-like symptoms, a small direct association of cognitive defusion on PTSD-like symptoms, and a large indirect association mediated by posttraumatic negative cognitions and avoidance coping. Owing to the study's cross-sectional design, strong conclusions cannot be drawn regarding the causal relationship of mindfulness and cognitive-behavioral factors or generalizations. However, our findings suggest that it would be worthwhile to continue to clarify the mechanism of mindfulness and to investigate its use in the treatment of PTSD. In the future, a highly accurate study design will hopefully be used to examine the mechanisms of several different factors associated with improvement in posttraumatic stress symptoms, preferably including them in the same model.

Author(s): Yuki Nishiguchi [sup.1] [sup.2] , Yoshihiko Tanno [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.26999.3d, 0000 0001 2151 536X, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, , 3-8-1 Komaba, [...], Lack of positive emotion is considered an important aspect of depression. Previous studies have reported decreased attention to positive information for individuals with depressive symptoms; however, such studies have not investigated whether decreased attentional allocation occurs even when participants are required to fixate centrally on items presented in the visual field. In the present study, the attentional window (i.e., the spatial distribution of attentional resources) was measured with a modified version of the digit-parity task. In this task, the participants had to fixate on the centrally presented emotional face stimuli, and they were required to respond to the peripherally presented targets. The results indicated that individuals with higher levels of depressive symptoms were slower to respond when a target appeared near happy faces, which suggested decreased allocation of attention. Moreover, decreased allocation of attention to positive faces was found only in depressive individuals, not in individuals with social anxiety. The present findings suggest that individuals with higher levels of depressive symptoms allocate less attentional resources to positive stimuli, even when they are required to attend to them.

Author(s): Liang Chen [sup.1] , Yi Liu [sup.2] , Xiaoyuan Jiang [sup.3] , Lunrui Fu [sup.4] , Yiwei Zhu [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.12527.33, 0000 0001 0662 3178, School of [...], Although telecommunications fraud has become a threat to the physical and mental health of children and adolescents, only limited studies have examined behavioral responses to telecommunications fraud of parents who are the primary agents of children's socialization. Based on the influence of presumed media influence (IPMI) model, this study aims to examine how parents' attention to telecommunications fraud influences their behavioral responses, including parental mediation and support for school education. A total of 757 parents of primary and middle school students in China have participated in online questionnaire survey. This study used the structural equation modeling to analyze the data. The results indicated that parents' attention to telecommunications fraud was positively associated with their presumed influence on others' children, which in turn positively affected parental active and restrictive mediation as well as support for school education. The findings of the present study highlighted the effects of parents' attention and presumed influence on others on their behavioral responses. Theoretical implications for extending applicable contexts and developing the behavioral responses of the IPMI model were discussed. Practical implications for parents, schools, online health campaigns, and non-governmental organizations in protecting children and adolescents from negative effects induced by telecommunications fraud were also discussed.

Author(s): Ping Liu [sup.1] , Juncai Sun [sup.2] , Wenhai Zhang [sup.3] , Dan Li [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.412531.0, 0000 0001 0701 1077, Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, [...], Empathy traits affect the processing of emotional information. Attentional characteristics of high-empathy people in processing positive emotions have received little empirical attention. We combined the dot-probe paradigm and eye tracker to investigate the specific components of attentional bias to happy faces and positive words among high- and low-empathy participants. The results showed that (1) in the attention-orienting phase, all participants had faster early-stage attention orienting to happy faces than that of positive words (a shorter time to first fixation), and (2) in the attention-maintenance phase, only high-empathy participants had longer late-stage attention maintenance to happy faces (a longer total fixation duration) than low-empathy participants. This study demonstrates that high-empathy participants show processing advantages in the attention orienting-maintenance modes to happy faces; facial expression has a higher sensitive index than emotional words.

Author(s): Yuanxiao Ma [sup.1] [sup.2] , Jiaxin Chen [sup.1] [sup.2] , Guangzeng Liu [sup.1] , Xu Chen [sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.263906.8, 0000 0001 0362 4044, Faculty of Psychology, [...], Insecure attachment is associated with an insensitive attentional processing of infant emotions, whereas secure attachment is more sensitive to perceiving infant signals. Regardless, whether exposure to reminders of insecure attachment can influence the attention processing of infant faces in securely and insecurely attached women remains unclear. The present study investigated the electrophysiological mechanism involved in attention function when preceded by insecurity primes. By means of ECR, we selected 21 nulliparous women with a secure attachment, 20 with an avoidant attachment, and 20 with an anxious attachment. Our results suggested that securely attached women allocated more attention resources to infant emotions, which was reflected by increased N1 and P2 amplitudes under insecurity primes. In contrast, insecurity primes led to the suppression of early selective attention (lower N1 amplitude) and later controlled attention (lower P3 amplitude) to infant emotions in both anxiously and avoidantly attached women. Furthermore, we also observed the inhibition of attentional processing (reflected by the P2 amplitude) in avoidantly attached women, who attended infant emotions under neutral primes but avoided them under insecurity primes. In conclusion, the present study implies that insecurity primes may push insecurely attached women to exhibit an insensitive attentional processing while elevating the allocation of attention resources to infant emotions in securely attached women.

The preference of infants for child-directed speech (CDS) over other sounds in the immediate environment allows them to learn statistical patterns of the ambient language (Vouloumanos & Curtin, 2014) and [...], Purpose: This study aims to examine the development of auditory selective attention to speech in noise by examining the ability of infants to prefer child-directed speech (CDS) over time-reversed speech (TRS) presented in "on-channel" and "off-channel" noise. Method: A total of 32 infants participated in the study. Sixteen typically developing infants were tested at 7 and 11 months of age using the central fixation procedure with CDS and TRS in two types of noise at +10 dB signal-tonoise ratio. One type of noise was an "on-channel" masker with a spectrum overlapping that of the CDS (energetic masking), and the second was an "off-channel" masker with frequencies that were outside the spectrum of the CDS (distractive masking). An additional group of sixteen 11-month-old infants were tested in quiet and served as controls for the "off-frequency" masker condition. Results: Infants preferred CDS over TRS in both age groups, but this preference was more pronounced with "off-channel" masker regardless of age. Also, older infants demonstrated longer looking time for the target stimuli when presented with an "off-channel" masker compared to the "on-channel" masker. Looking time in quiet was similar to looking time in the "off-channel" condition, and looking time for CDS was longer in quiet compared to the "on-channel" condition. Conclusions: These findings support the notion that (a) infants as young as 7 months of age are already showing preference for speech in noise, regardless of type of masker; (b) by 11 months of age, listening with the "off-channel" condition did not yield different results than in quiet. Thus, by 11 months of age, infants' cognitive-attentional abilities may be more developed.

Author(s): Shen Liu [sup.1] [sup.2] , Qun Tan [sup.1] , Xiaohui Yang [sup.1] , Lin Zhang [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.203507.3, 0000 0000 8950 5267, Department and Institute of Psychology, [...], The high self-esteem (HSE) heterogeneity hypothesis provides a new research perspective for investigating differences in the quantity and quality of different types of self-esteem. The present study adopted the emotional Stroop paradigm and the odd-one-out search task to explore how individuals with different types of self-esteem process social information in self-threatening situations. The results showed that individuals with different types of self-esteem had an attentional bias toward negative information and had different attentional biases toward angry faces in self-threatening situations. Individuals with fragile HSE and low self-esteem showed facilitated attention to angry faces and had difficulty drawing attention away from them; secure HSE individuals only showed difficulty disengaging attention from angry faces.

Author(s): Vasanthi Jason [sup.1] , Geetha S. N. [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.252262.3, 0000 0001 0613 6919, Department of Management Studies, Anna University, , Chennai, India Introduction Information Technology (IT) [...], For successful innovations, identifying and facilitating goal-orientations of the workforce is of vital importance in the present day competitive organizational scenario. This study deepens the understanding that innovative work behavior (IWB) of an employee is facilitated by both promotion and prevention foci. Drawing insights from the regulatory focus (RF) theory we have developed and tested a model involving the motivational dynamics of work engagement (WE) in the relationship between regulatory focus (RF) and IWB. Structural equation modeling analysis of responses from 603 information technology (IT) employees in India confirmed the partial mediation effect of WE between promotion focus and IWB. A full mediation effect of WE between prevention focus and IWB was also established. The data model exhibited a good fit. The results help in establishing the role of WE in contributing to IWB of employees who are either promotion or prevention focused. Scope for future research and implications of the results are discussed.

Author(s): Nazife Burcu Takil [sup.1] , Berna A. Sari [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.25769.3f, 0000 0001 2169 7132, Department of Turkish Education, Gazi University, Gazi Faculty of Education, , Ankara, [...], Anxiety can be defined as a negative emotional state in response to an expected threat. It is an essential stage to prepare for and effectively respond to threat. However, the resources allocated to cope with the threat would be wasted if the threat does not take place. In this study, our aim is to examine the role of flexible use of attentional resources when the threat is rather likely to happen (career anxiety) or unlikely to happen (trait anxiety). With this aim in mind, Turkish language teacher candidates, who are considered as vulnerable to career anxiety, were recruited to participate in the study. Participants (N = 93) reported their trait anxiety, career anxiety, and attentional control levels via self-report questionnaires. Results showed that trait anxiety, but not career anxiety, was negatively associated with the attentional control. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Author(s): Ryota Kobayashi [sup.1] , Makoto Miyatani [sup.1] , Takashi Nakao [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.257022.0, 0000 0000 8711 3200, Department of Education, Hiroshima University, , Hiroshima, Japan Introduction Emotion [...], Previous research suggests that distraction, which shifts attention away from negative situations or stimuli, reduces negative emotion. Although working memory capacity plays an important role in attention control, it remains unclear whether working memory capacity influences the effect of distraction as an emotion regulation strategy. In this study, we examined the relationship between working memory capacity and distraction. Seventy-six healthy undergraduate and graduate students participated in this study. Participants watched a movie clip that evoked negative emotion. Approximately half of the participants subsequently engaged in a distraction task in which they selected a category for 32 displayed images; the other half of the participants were instructed to wait 210 s as a questionnaire was prepared. The participants were asked to respond to the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule before and after watching the movie clip, as well as after completing the distraction task or waiting. A multiple regression analysis showed an interaction between the effectiveness of distraction and working memory capacity. As predicted, among participants in the distraction condition, those with higher working memory capacity expressed less negative emotion than those with lower working memory capacity. This result suggests that the effectiveness of distraction depends on individual differences in working memory capacity.

Author(s): Alexandra Hendry [sup.1] [sup.2] , Emily J. H. Jones [sup.3] , Rachael Bedford [sup.4] , Linn Andersson Konke [sup.5] , Jannath Begum Ali [sup.3] , Sven BÓ§lte [sup.6] [sup.7] [...], Autism is frequently associated with difficulties with top-down attentional control, which impact on individuals' mental health and quality of life. The developmental processes involved in these attentional difficulties are not well understood. Using a data-driven approach, 2 samples (N = 294 and 412) of infants at elevated and typical likelihood of autism were grouped according to profiles of parent report of attention at 10, 15 and 25 months. In contrast to the normative profile of increases in attentional control scores between infancy and toddlerhood, a minority (7-9%) showed plateauing attentional control scores between 10 and 25 months. Consistent with pre-registered hypotheses, plateaued growth of attentional control was associated with elevated autism and ADHD traits, and lower adaptive functioning at age 3 years.

Author(s): Yue Huang [sup.1] [sup.2] , Kun Zuo [sup.3] , Manish Kumar Asthana [sup.1] [sup.2] , William Edgar Comfort [sup.4] , Zhan Xu [sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) grid.263906.8, Faculty [...], Previous research has indicated that visual attention can be automatically captured by sensory inputs that match the contents of visual working memory. Furthermore, the information in visual working memory can be used as a template of memory guidance for either the selection or rejection of visual attention. The current study investigated the memory-driven attentional processes in four experiments which extend and complement previous research. Participants performed a visual search task while maintaining items in visual working memory. Experiment 1 used an arrow as a pre-cue indicating which side of the screen the search target would appear on. Experiment 2 used two circles as pre-cues for the right-up/down location of the search target. Experiment 3 presented a memory-matching distractor for 300 ms followed by a blank screen. Experiment 4 presented a memory-matching distractor for 150 ms followed by the visual search task. All experiments resulted in significantly slower visual search reaction times (RTs) for the invalid condition (memory-matching distractor) compared to the neutral condition but with no significant differences in memory performance. This result suggests that the contents of working memory affect the deployment of attention in visual search. Our findings show that attentional capture occurs even within short periods of 150 ms, which demonstrates the robustness and speed of memory-driven attentional processes. Consequently, attentional capture appears to be initiated at an early phase of visual processing but can be strategically inhibited through cognitive control at later stages of analysis.

Language and attention represent two crucial cognitive processes in developing children. The relationship between these two cognitive processes has led to discussion in recent literature devoted both to typical development [...], Purpose: Attention and language are hypothesized to interact in bilingual children and in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). In children who are bilingual, attentional control may be enhanced by repeated experience regulating 2 languages. In children with DLD, subtle weaknesses in sustained attention may relate to impaired language processing. This study measured attentional control and sustained attention in monolingual and bilingual children with and without DLD in order to examine the potential influences of bilingualism and DLD, as well as their intersection, on attention. Method: Monolingual English-only and bilingual Spanish-English children aged 6-8 years were categorized into participant groups based on eligibility testing and parent interviews. Parent interviews included standardized assessment of language environment and parent concern regarding language. Participants completed 2 nonlinguistic computerized assessments: a flanker task to measure attentional control and a continuous performance task to measure sustained attention. Results: One hundred nine children met all eligibility criteria for inclusion in a participant group. Regression models predicting performance on the attention tasks were similar for both sustained attention and attentional control. For both tasks, DLD was a significant predictor, and bilingualism was not. Measuring bilingualism continuously using parent-reported exposure did not alter results. Conclusions: This study found no evidence of a "bilingual cognitive advantage" on 2 types of attention among sequential Spanish-English bilingual children but also found a negative effect of DLD that was consistent across both types of attention and both bilingual and monolingual children. Results are consistent with the broader literature on subtle nonlinguistic deficits in children with DLD and suggest these deficits are minimally affected by diverse linguistic experience.

Sustained attention is a prevalent component in the average person's daily life (Langner & Eickhoff, 2013). For instance, the U.S. Department of Transportation (2014) has reported that nearly 87% of [...], Research on sustained attention regularly reports declines in task performance as a function of time on task, a phenomenon commonly called the vigilance decrement. Therefore, previous work from theoretical and applied fields has focused on attenuating this performance decrement. Recently, aspects of social facilitation have been used to attain this goal. Social facilitation, or improving task performance through the social presence of an individual, has been found to improve performance on sustained attention tasks. However, the extent to which the forms of social facilitation can mitigate performance are unclear. Thus, the impetus of the present research was to explore the effects of two prevalent forms of social facilitation (i.e., mere presence and evaluative presence) on a sustained attention (i.e., vigilance) task. In sum, 132 observers completed a 24-min cognitive-based vigilance task. The results indicated that an evaluative presence produced the strongest effects on performance, such that the proportion of false alarms was significantly reduced relative to no social presence. Moreover, the mere presence of an individual did not significantly improve vigilance task performance. The results of the present experiment suggest that an evaluative context may be necessary for social presence to improve detection performance on tasks that require sustained attention.KEYWORDS: evaluation apprehension, vigilance, social facilitation, mere presence

Author(s): Sallie W. Nowell [sup.1] [sup.3] , Linda R. Watson [sup.1] , Richard A. Faldowski [sup.1] , Grace T. Baranek [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000000122483208, grid.10698.36, Department of Allied Health [...], The goal of this paper is to examine the psychometric properties of a live-coded behavioral measure of joint attention, the Attention-Following and Initiating Joint Attention Protocol (JA Protocol), in order to assist researchers and clinicians in identifying when this measure may meet their joint attention assessment needs. Data from 260 children with autism spectrum disorder, developmental delay, or typical development between the ages of 2 and 12 years were used to evaluate this measure using quality standards for measurement. Overall, the JA Protocol demonstrated good psychometric properties. Recommendations and limitations for use of this measure based on psychometric analysis results are reported.

Author(s): Elisabeth Nilsson Jobs [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] , Terje Falck-Ytter [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] , Sven Bölte [sup.2] [sup.3] [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0004 1936 9457, grid.8993.b, Uppsala Child and [...], Research on visual local and global perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is incomplete in young children. We investigated 35 three-year-old siblings of children with ASD, either diagnosed (n = 12) or not diagnosed (n = 23) with ASD as well as 14 controls with typical development and with no family history of ASD. Data from the local tasks Children's Embedded Figures Test, Hidden Pictures, Figure-Ground and the global tasks Closure and Fragmented Picture Test were collected. Enhanced performance on the local task Hidden Pictures differentiated children with ASD from the other groups. Implications of these results are discussed.

Author(s): Burt Ashworth [sup.1] , William McCown [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0000 8750 2599, grid.266622.4, College of Business and Social Sciences, Strauss Hall 306, University of Louisiana at Monroe, [...], We examined the relationship between chronic procrastination, hoarding, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and a computer measure of continuous performance with 84 adult patients evaluated for diagnoses. Patients were administered the General Procrastination Inventory, the Saving Inventory-Revised, the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale and the IVA + Plus Continuous Performance Test. Procrastination scores correlated negatively with auditory attention scores, while self-reported hoarding tendencies correlated negatively with visual attention. Measures of procrastiation, hoarding, and ADHD were positively correlated. Implications and limitations of findings are discussed as well as directions for futher research.

At any given waking moment, numerous visual objects compete for our attention. Some form of attentional selection is needed to regulate this continuous flux of visual information in everyday life. [...], Christie and Klein (2008) recommended using the 7 key conditions used by Neumann and De-Schepper (1991) and Stadler and Hogan (1996) to investigate the full range of effects produced by recently rejected distractors (negative priming) and recently attended targets (positive priming) in selective attention tasks. They suggested that incorporating all seven conditions should help to overcome the current muddle of possible explanations for positive and negative priming effects. Crucially, although the overall patterns of results reported by Neumann and DeSchepper and Stadler and Hogan were identical, some of the conditions in Stadler and Hogan's experiment produced much larger effects, particularly in the attended repetition (positive priming) conditions, compared with those of Neumann and DeSchepper. Here we use statistical support provided by an analytic approach known as predicted pattern testing (Levin & Neumann, 1999) to argue that asymmetric transfer produced by participant expectancy effects could account for the magnitude of Stadler and Hogan's positive priming outcomes, rather than the commonly accepted assumption made by Christie and Klein, and others, that prime-probe congruencies involving targets should affect performance (responses to probe targets) more than prime-probe congruencies involving distractors. KEYWORDS: priming, selective attention, inhibition, negative priming, transfer

Author(s): E. Campillo [sup.1] , J. J. Ricarte [sup.1] [sup.2] , L. Ros [sup.1] [sup.2] , M. Nieto [sup.1] [sup.2] , J. M. Latorre [sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 [...], Although the positive cognitive and emotional effects of mindfulness-based interventions are widely accepted, the differential effect of the visual and auditory components of this therapy is currently unknown. In this study, 50 healthy volunteer participants were randomized to two equivalent brief mindfulness-based interventions, one using visual stimuli and the other auditory. For the first group, we used a 30-min computer presentation showing different images organized into colors, mandalas and landscapes (15 images x 2 min). For the second group, we created an audio track divided into the same categories as the visual group and with the same timing (15 sounds x 2 min). The results show that regardless of the condition (visual or auditory), the scores in auditory and visual memory and attention improved after meditation. Also regardless of condition, positive emotions decreased after mindfulness meditation. However, following the intervention, negative emotions decreased more sharply in the auditory group than in the visual group. These results suggest that mindfulness concentration and attention techniques presented in an auditory verbal format are more immediately effective at the emotional level than when presented in visual format.

Nearly 10% of babies born in the United States arrive prematurely or more than 3 weeks before their due dates (Hamilton, Martin, & Osterman, 2016). Prematurity can have far-reaching effects, [...], Purpose: This research note explores the potential role of attention in mediating previously reported associations between language outcomes and prematurity. Method: As a follow-up investigation to Mahurin Smith, DeThorne, Logan, Channell, and Petrill (2014), we employed multilevel modeling to analyze longitudinal data on language and attention collected when children were, on average, ages of 7, 8, and 10 years. The sample of 114 children taken from the Western Reserve Reading and Math Project was selected to oversample children with a history of prematurity while also controlling for differences in confounding influences such as age, gender, parental education, and race. Results: As predicted, attention differentially predicted language outcomes based on form of measurement. Specifically, parent and examiner ratings of attention were significantly associated with standardized test performance at all 3 time points ([R.sup.2] = 15.2%-20%). Associations between attention and language sample measures were less consistent across home visits and tended to be smaller in effect size. Conclusion: Attention abilities are associated with children's language performance even in the absence of an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder diagnosis. Clinical implications, particularly as related to assessment, are discussed.

Author(s): Hua Gao [sup.1] , Zhuowang Jia [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) Fujian Normal University (Qishan Area), 0000 0000 9271 2478, grid.411503.2, , Fuzhou, Fujian, China Introduction Visual attention plays a [...], Inattentional blindness refers to the failure to detect the salient unexpected stimuli in one's visual field when performing an attention-demanding task. The present study examined the detection of threats in a static inattentional blindness paradigm. And the detection rates of evolutionary and ontogenetic threats were compared. Participants counted the number of color words from among three (low load) or six (high load) items presented in a circular array. On the last of six trials, an unexpected threatening/neutral illustration was presented in the center of the array along with the task stimuli. Participants detection of the illustration were thus measured and analyzed. The results suggested that: (1) the threatening stimuli, both evolutionary and ontogenetic, were detected more frequently than non-threatening stimuli; (2) the unexpected illustrations were identified more frequently under low-load condition than under high-load condition; (3) even under high-load situation, the threatening illustrations were more frequently identified than neutral ones. Threats are more likely to be detected under inattentional blindness and perceptual load.

Author(s): Rodrigo Becerra [sup.1] , Coralyn Dandrade [sup.1] , Craig Harms [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) School of Psychology and Social Science, Faculty of Computing, Health and Science Edith Cowan University, [...], Mindfulness practice is becoming an accepted psychological intervention used in clinical settings to help enhance attention. To date however relatively few randomised control trial (RCT) studies have investigated the effect of mindfulness training on attentional skills in novice practitioners. This study examined the effect of daily mindfulness practice on changes in attention skills; alerting, orienting and executive control in novice practitioners. Forty six university students from Perth, Western Australia were randomly assigned to one of two groups (mindfulness or waitlist control). Baseline analyses of psychological wellbeing indicated that the two groups initially were comparable in this domain. Pre- and post-test assessments using the Attention Network Test (ANT) were conducted to measure attention skills. Repeated measures ANOVA were used to examine the effect of intervention. Significant improvement in orienting and executive control skills following the mindfulness intervention was noted, however, no changes in alerting attentional skills were detected. Mindfulness practice impacted on the fundamental processes of the selective (orienting) and executive attention (executive control) networks which may in turn have additional beneficial effects in a variety of domains and situations. These findings add to existing literature that supports the positive and beneficial effect of regular mindfulness practice for the enhancement of attentional skills and its potential application to clinical populations.

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have below age-appropriate language skills in the absence of an identifiable cause (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; World Health Organization, 1992). The spoken language of [...], Purpose: In this study pupillometry was used to investigate the allocation of attentional resources associated with sentence comprehension in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). Method: Eighteen children with SLI (age: M = 6.4 years) and 18 typically developing (TD) children (age: M = 6.3 years) participated in the study. A sentence comprehension task was presented that comprised items designated as easy or hard. Easy sentences contained 4 or 5 words, and hard sentences contained 6 or 7 words. Results: For the TD group, pupil size was significantly larger when comprehending hard sentences compared with easy sentences. There was no effect of sentence difficulty on pupil size in the SLI group. Comparisons between groups revealed pupil sizes for the SLI group were significantly larger than those for the TD group for easy sentences. There were no group differences for the hard sentences. Conclusion: In TD children, pupillometry was sensitive to the attentional demands associated with sentence comprehension. Between-subjects comparisons indicated that the TD group allocated less attention than did the children with SLI for the easy sentences but not for the hard sentences. This study provides evidence of attentional differences between children with SLI and TD children under conditions of low processing demands.

Attention is a complex construct that has been implicated in disorders such as attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Of the many tasks developed to assess different aspects of attention, the continuous [...], Purpose: Continuous performance tasks (CPTs) are used to measure individual differences in sustained attention. Many different stimuli have been used as response targets without consideration of their impact on task performance. Here, we compared CPT performance in typically developing adults and children to assess the role of stimulus processing on error rates and reaction times. Method: Participants completed a CPT that was based on response to infrequent targets, while monitoring and withholding responses to regular nontargets. Performance on 3 stimulus conditions was compared: visual letters (X and O), their auditory analogs, and auditory pure tones. Results: Adults showed no difference in error propensity across the 3 conditions but had slower reaction times for auditory stimuli. Children had slower overall reaction times. They responded most quickly to the visual target and most slowly to the tone target. They also made more errors in the tone condition than in either the visual or the auditory spoken CPT conditions. Conclusions: The results suggest error propensity and reaction time variations on CPTs cannot solely be interpreted as evidence of inattention. They also reflect stimulus-specific influences that must be considered when testing hypotheses about modality-specific deficits in sustained attention in populations with different developmental disorders.

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have deficits in cognitive control processes often included in the general category of executive functions (Gillam, Montgomery, & Gillam, 2009; Hick, Botting, & Conti-Ramsden, [...], Purpose: Children with specific language impairment (SLI) appear to demonstrate deficits in attention and its control. Selective attention involves the cognitive control of attention directed toward a relevant stimulus and simultaneous inhibition of attention toward irrelevant stimuli. The current study examined attention control during a cross-modal word recognition task. Method: Twenty participants with SLI (ages 9-12 years) and 20 age-matched peers with typical language development (TLD) listened to words through headphones and were instructed to attend to the words in 1 ear while ignoring the words in the other ear. They were simultaneously presented with pictures and asked to make a lexical decision about whether the pictures and auditory words were the same or different. Accuracy and reaction time were measured in 5 conditions, in which the stimulus in the unattended channel was manipulated. Results: The groups performed with similar accuracy. Compared with their peers with TLD, children with SLI had slower reaction times overall and different within-group patterns of performance by condition. Conclusions: Children with TLD showed efficient inhibitory control in conditions that required active suppression of competing stimuli. Participants with SLI had difficulty exerting control over their auditory attention in all conditions, with particular difficulty inhibiting distractors of all types.

In life there are constant demands for attention from numerous sources, many occurring at roughly the same time. Therefore, it is important to understand how the attention system adjudicates multiple [...], Parallel and automatic processing is evidenced in visual search by what is commonly called popout. An object of search (a target) that differs widely from all other display objects on some simple visual dimension is commonly called a singleton; an example is search for a red circle when all other displayed circles are green. A singleton attracts attention to the degree that it is salient, and highly salient singletons produce search that is almost independent of display size. The present research examines the way this attraction of attention can be diverted by the presence of singletons on 1 or 2 nontarget perceptual dimensions (e.g., search for a red circle among green ones, when one of the green circles is larger than the others, and another might be green but square). The results establish that distraction occurs rarely but strongly, that 2 distractors produce more distraction than 1, and that the degree of distraction depends not only on salience but also on dimension similarity. These findings occurred in 2 different tasks: The observer either reported the orientation of a Gabor embedded in the target or reported the presence and absence of the target.

Some children, in spite of normal hearing sensitivity, report persistent listening difficulties, especially in noisy environments, such as classrooms (Hind et al., 2011; Lagace, Jutras, & Gagne, 2010; D. R. [...], Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine attention, memory, and auditory processing in children with reported listening difficulty in noise (LDN) despite having clinically normal hearing. Method: Twenty-one children with LDN and 15 children with no listening concerns (controls) participated. The clinically normed auditory processing tests included the Frequency/ Pitch Pattern Test (FPT; Musiek, 2002), the Dichotic Digits Test (Musiek, 1983), the Listening in Spatialized Noise--Sentences (LiSN-S) test (Dillon, Cameron, Glyde, Wilson, & Tomlin, 2012), gap detection in noise (Baker, Jayewardene, Sayle, & Saeed, 2008), and masking level difference (MLD; Wilson, Moncrieff, Townsend, & Pillion, 2003). Also included were research-based psychoacoustic tasks, such as auditory stream segregation, localization, sinusoidal amplitude modulation (SAM), and fine structure perception. All were also evaluated on attention and memory test batteries. Results: The LDN group was significantly slower switching their auditory attention and had poorer inhibitory control. Additionally, the group mean results showed significantly poorer performance on FPT, MLD, 4-Hz SAM, and memory tests. Close inspection of the individual data revealed that only 5 participants (out of 21) in the LDN group showed significantly poor performance on FPT compared with clinical norms. Further testing revealed the frequency discrimination of these 5 children to be significantly impaired. Conclusion: Thus, the LDN group showed deficits in attention switching and inhibitory control, whereas only a subset of these participants demonstrated an additional frequency resolution deficit.

Introduction The perceptual abilities of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are variously noted for their strengths (Frith 2003; Gonzalezet al. 2013; Happe and Frith 2010), similarities with neurotypical populations [...], Perceptual processing in autism is associated with both 'strengths' and 'weaknesses' but within a literature that varies widely in terms of the assessments used. We report data from 12 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and 12 age and IQ matched neurotypical controls tested on a set of tasks using the same stimuli throughout but systematically changing in difficulty. These tasks ranged through simple detection of stimulus onset to pairwise size discrimination across two approaching targets. Children with ASD were slower than controls even in simple detection tasks, but this did not explain further group differences found in the size discrimination of approaching targets. The results are discussed in terms of impairments in speed of responding in ASD under certain conditions of visuomotor coupling, stimulus presentation and increased information processing demands. Keywords ASD * Attention switching * Perception * Target discrimination

In the attentional blink (AB) task, participants are required to identify two masked targets (T1 and T2) that are presented in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream. The AB [...], The attentional blink (AB) effect refers to the finding that the second of two quickly presented masked targets (T1 and T2) is less likely to be identified when the temporal lag between the targets is short than when it is long (Raymond, Shapiro, & Arnell, 1992). Interestingly, the AB effect is diminished for salient T2 stimuli. The common explanation is that salient stimuli are processed more efficiently than other stimuli. A contrasting hypothesis is that it is due to a bias to report such stimuli. Recently, Tibboel, Van Bockstaele, and De Houwer (2011) introduced a signal detection method that allowed them to reject the response bias explanation for the effect of arousing words on the AB. Presently, we used the same method to examine the diminished AB for participants' own names (Experiment 1) and stimuli that form a coherent category (Experiment 2). Both experiments confirmed that the effect of these stimuli on the AB reflects more efficient processing rather than a response bias. Key words: attentional blink, rapid serial visual presentation, salience, response bias