Alerting is one of the three components of attention which involves the eliciting and maintenance of arousal. A seminal study by Posner et al. (Posner MI, Klein R, Summers J, Buggie S. 1973 Mem. Cognit. 1, 2–12 (doi:10.3758/BF0319806210.3758/BF03198062)) focused on how changing the interval between an alerting signal and a target would impact the speed and accuracy of responding. Participants indicated whether targets were presented on the left or right side of the fixation point. Auditory warning signals were played at various intervals prior to the target to alert participants and prepare them to make a response. Reaction times revealed a robust, U-shaped, preparation function. Importantly, a clear speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) was observed. In the current experiment, we replicated the methodological components of this seminal study while implementing a novel auditory warning signal (Lawrence MA, Klein RM. 2013 J. Exp. Psychol. General 142, 560 (doi:10.1037/a002902310.1037/a0029023)) that was either purely endogenous (change in quality without a change in intensity; analogous to isoluminant colour change in vision) or a combination of endogenous and exogenous (change in both quality and intensity). We expected to replicate the U-shaped preparation function and SAT observed by Posner and colleagues. Based on Lawrence and Klein's findings we also expected the SAT to be more robust with the intense signal in comparison to the isointense signal.

Temporal attention is the focusing of perceptual resources at a particular point in time. Valid temporal cue information has the capability to improve performance by reducing reaction times, while invalid information has the possibility of impairing performance. The performance difference between valid and invalid conditions is called a temporal cueing effect (TCE). We explored how different alerting mechanisms interact with a participant's ability to utilize temporal information cues, using the Kingstone (The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 44(1), 69-104, 1992) temporal cueing paradigm. Extracting the alerting procedure from Lawrence and Klein (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142(2), 560-572, 2013), one of two different temporally contingent warning signals were presented to participants during a trial. The "hi-intensity" warning signal increases intensity and elicits both exogenous and endogenous alerting mechanisms. The "no-intensity" warning signal is isointense relative to baseline and elicits only endogenous alerting mechanisms. Two experiments conducted previously using a discrimination task showed interference between the signal intensity and task difficulty, where the "no-intensity" signal failed to elicit TCEs. In the present study, we implemented a detection task, reducing the mental effort required for a response. The results showed equal TCEs in both signal conditions. We argue for independence of these alerting mechanisms, by way of Sternberg's (Acta Psychologica, 30, 276-315, 1969) additive factor method. Arguments contrasting what mechanism is being impacted by this paradigm are further outlined.

In 2002, Fan and his colleagues developed the Attention Network Test (ANT), a cognitive tool that provides a score for each of the attentional networks (alerting, orienting, and executive functioning). Since publication, this study has been cited over 3 500 times. The authors state one of the indicated uses of this tool is to measure how different interventions, both behavioral and pharmacological, influence the networks of attention. The present review focuses on this premise and investigates how various aspects of lifestyle differently impact the networks of attention.Whether trying to optimize the attentional networks to improve cognitive performance, or to prevent the cognitive decline that occurs with age, this review summarizes what practices promote efficiency within the alerting, orienting, and executive functioning networks. The specific areas of lifestyle this review focuses on are meditation, exercise, drug use, sleep, and environmental or social factors.

Crossmodal correspondences are defined as associations between crossmodal stimuli based on seemingly irrelevant stimulus features (i.e., bright shapes being associated with high-pitched sounds). There is a large body of research describing auditory crossmodal correspondences involving pitch and volume, but not so much involving auditory timbre, the character or quality of a sound. Adeli and colleagues (2014, Front. Hum. Neurosci. 8, 352) found evidence of correspondences between timbre and visual shape. The present study aimed to replicate Adeli et al.’s findings, as well as identify novel timbre–shape correspondences. Participants were tested using two computerized tasks: an association task, which involved matching shapes to presented sounds based on best perceived fit, and a semantic task, which involved rating shapes and sounds on a number of scales. The analysis of association matches reveals nonrandom selection, with certain stimulus pairs being selected at a much higher frequency. The harsh/jagged and smooth/soft correspondences observed by Adeli et al. were found to be associated with a high level of consistency. Additionally, high matching frequency of sounds with unstudied timbre characteristics suggests the existence of novel correspondences. Finally, the ability of the semantic task to supplement existing crossmodal correspondence assessments was demonstrated. Convergent analysis of the semantic and association data demonstrates that the two datasets are significantly correlated (−0.36) meaning stimulus pairs associated with a high level of consensus were more likely to hold similar perceived meaning. The results of this study are discussed in both theoretical and applied contexts.

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