Using Smiles, Frowns, and Gaze to Attribute Conscious States to Others: Testing Part of the Attention Schema Theory

Bio, Branden J.; Graziano, Michael S. A.

doi:10.31234/osf.io/7s8bk

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Even more than gaze tracking, people construct rich and multidimensional models of other people’s attention ( 66 – 68 ). For example, people combine facial expression cues with gaze cues to reconstruct the attentional states of others ( 69 ). People also intuitively understand whether someone else’s attention is exogenously captured or endogenously directed ( 66 , 67 ).…”

Section: Evidence Of An Attention Schemamentioning

confidence: 99%

A conceptual framework for consciousness

Graziano

2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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This article argues that consciousness has a logically sound, explanatory framework, different from typical accounts that suffer from hidden mysticism. The article has three main parts. The first describes background principles concerning information processing in the brain, from which one can deduce a general, rational framework for explaining consciousness. The second part describes a specific theory that embodies those background principles, the Attention Schema Theory. In the past several years, a growing body of experimental evidence—behavioral evidence, brain imaging evidence, and computational modeling—has addressed aspects of the theory. The final part discusses the evolution of consciousness. By emphasizing the specific role of consciousness in cognition and behavior, the present approach leads to a proposed account of how consciousness may have evolved over millions of years, from fish to humans. The goal of this article is to present a comprehensive, overarching framework in which we can understand scientifically what consciousness is and what key adaptive roles it plays in brain function.

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Section: Evidence Of An Attention Schemamentioning

confidence: 99%

A conceptual framework for consciousness

Graziano

2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Recently, however, it has been suggested that reconstructing the attention of others may involve a process much deeper than using a single cue (the direction that someone’s eyes are pointing) to infer the momentary attention state. It may involve using multiple cues to build a rich, predictive model of the other person’s attention, or an “attention schema” ( 18 – 23 ). The hypothesis differs from prior conceptualizations in two main ways.…”

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confidence: 99%

Predicting the attention of others

Ziman,

Kimmel,

Farrell

et al. 2023

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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As social animals, people are highly sensitive to the attention of others. Seeing someone else gaze at an object automatically draws one’s own attention to that object. Monitoring the attention of others aids in reconstructing their emotions, beliefs, and intentions and may play a crucial role in social alignment. Recently, however, it has been suggested that the human brain constructs a predictive model of other people’s attention that is far more involved than a moment-by-moment monitoring of gaze direction. The hypothesized model learns the statistical patterns in other people’s attention and extrapolates how attention is likely to move. Here, we tested the hypothesis of a predictive model of attention. Subjects saw movies of attention displayed as a bright spot shifting around a scene. Subjects were able to correctly distinguish natural attention sequences (based on eye tracking of prior participants) from altered sequences (e.g., played backward or in a scrambled order). Even when the attention spot moved around a blank background, subjects could distinguish natural from scrambled sequences, suggesting a sensitivity to the spatial–temporal statistics of attention. Subjects also showed an ability to recognize the attention patterns of different individuals. These results suggest that people possess a sophisticated model of the normal statistics of attention and can identify deviations from the model. Monitoring attention is therefore more than simply registering where someone else’s eyes are pointing. It involves predictive modeling, which may contribute to our remarkable social ability to predict the mind states and behavior of others.

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Trauma as Absence: A Biopsychosocial-AIP Definition of Trauma and Its Treatment in EMDR Therapy

Cotraccia

2022

J EMDR Prac Res

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This paper advances the biopsychosocial adaptive information processing model (BPS-AIP) and theory (Cotraccia, 2012) by adding consciousness as a mechanism of action activated via social behavior in EMDR. An attention schema is conceptualized as content integrated with dynamic self-models that maintain subjective mental states of biopsychosocial connectivity or disconnectivity. These implicit self-models are portrayed as determining 1) the disposition of the BPS-AIP system of clients presenting for EMDR as more or less connected or disconnected prior to, at the time of, and following, a stressful event; and 2) whether or not stressful events become traumatizing over time. Attention schema theory (Graziano, 2021) is integrated to further describe how establishing and enhancing attentional agency when addressing simple and complex-PTSD facilitates consolidation of autobiographical memory. Self-integration in the context of an attuned therapeutic relationship is described in terms of patterns of tracking attention to promote heightened states of self/other consciousness and activate the innate healing system. Attention schema theory, as a prominent theory of consciousness, adds to BPS-AIP’s compelling description of how an innate neurophysiological system can be integrated with psychosocial components that explain how both subjective and intersubjective experiences are causally relevant to the processing of autobiographical memory.

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Using Smiles, Frowns, and Gaze to Attribute Conscious States to Others: Testing Part of the Attention Schema Theory

Cited by 3 publications

References 37 publications

A conceptual framework for consciousness

A conceptual framework for consciousness

Predicting the attention of others

Trauma as Absence: A Biopsychosocial-AIP Definition of Trauma and Its Treatment in EMDR Therapy

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