Adaptive Changes in the Dynamics of Visual Attention With Extended Practice

Abstract

Previous research indicates that visual attention can adapt to temporal stimulus patterns utilizing the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. However, how the temporal dynamics of an attentional pulse adapt to temporal patterns has not been explored. We addressed this question by conducting an attentional component analysis on RSVP performance and explored whether changes in attentional dynamics were accompanied by explicit learning about predictable target timing. We utilized an RSVP task in which a target letter appeared either in two possible RSVP positions in fixed-timing conditions or in random positions over 1, 2, or 3 days of training. In a transfer phase, the target appeared in previously presented or new positions. Over 3 days of practice the target identification rate, efficacy, and precision of a putative attentional pulse increased. These changes reflected general learning in the RSVP task resulting in attentional dynamics more efficiently focused on the target. Although group performance effects did not support learning of fixed target positions, target identification rates and the measure of the efficacy of an attentional pulse at these positions were positively associated with explicit learning. The current study is the first to provide a detailed description of practice related adaptation of attentional dynamics and suggests that timing specific changes might be mediated by explicit temporal learning.

Predictability awareness rather than mere predictability enhances the perceptual benefits for targets in auditory rhythms over targets following temporal cues

“…Therefore, our results may suggest that, in the absence of instruction, entrainment of oscillations alone would not provide a vehicle for the generation of predictions that are more efficient than the predictions provided by a single cue of the temporal interval after which a target follows. We suggest that explicit instruction allowed participants to intentionally use the rhythm, guiding attention to a specific moment in time [36]. The focusing of attention to a precise point in time in the periodic sequence may have been aided by the accumulated evidence of the precise length of inter-stimulus intervals, providing an advantage over both aperiodic and interval cue conditions.…”