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Distractor Task (distractor + task)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Psychology75%

Selected Abstracts

Inattentional blindness with the same scene at different scales

OPHTHALMIC AND PHYSIOLOGICAL OPTICS, Issue 2 2010
Henry L. Apfelbaum
Abstract People with severely restricted peripheral visual fields have difficulty walking confidently and safely in the physical environment. Augmented vision devices that we are developing for low-vision rehabilitation implement vision multiplexing, providing two views of the same scene at two different scales (sizes), with a cartooned minified wide view overlaying a natural see-through view. Inattentional blindness may partially limit the utility of these devices as low-vision aids. Inattentional blindness, the apparent inability to notice significant but unexpected events in an unattended scene when attention is fixed on another scene, has classically been demonstrated by overlaying two unrelated game scenes, with unexpected events occurring in one scene while attention is maintained on the other scene by a distractor task. We hypothesized that context like that provided by the related wide view in our devices might mitigate inattentional blindness in a study with two simultaneous views of the same scene shown at different scales. It did not, and unexpected event detection rates were remarkably consistent with our and other mixed-scene studies. Still, detecting about half of the unexpected events bodes well for our use of vision aids that employ vision multiplexing. Without the aids, is it likely that many more events would be missed. [source]

Articulatory suppression attenuates the verbal overshadowing effect: a role for verbal encoding in face identification

APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2006
Lee H. V. Wickham
Verbal overshadowing is the phenomenon that verbally describing a face between presentation and test can impair identification of the face (Schooler & Engstler-Schooler, 1990). This study examined the effects of articulatory suppression and distinctiveness upon the magnitude of the verbal overshadowing effect. Participants engaged in articulatory suppression or a control task whilst viewing a target face. They then either described the face or completed a distractor task before selecting the target face from a line-up. This was repeated for 12 trials. Articulatory suppression impaired identification performance overall, and reduced the negative effects of description to non-significance, whereas the control group demonstrated the standard verbal overshadowing effect. Typical faces showed verbal overshadowing, whereas distinctive faces did not. These results are consistent with the view that verbal overshadowing arises because the description of the target face creates a verbal code that interferes with a verbal code created spontaneously during encoding. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Mazes and music: using perceptual processing to release verbal overshadowing

APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 8 2002
Kimberly Finger
Verbal overshadowing occurs when participants describe a previously viewed non-verbal stimulus such as a face prior to a recognition memory test. The results of numerous studies indicate that recognition accuracy is lower when participants describe the face or other non-verbal stimulus as compared to a no-description control condition. In the present two-experiment study, verbal overshadowing was alleviated when participants engaged in a non-verbal task that emphasized perceptual processing subsequent to describing the face but prior to the recognition memory test. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants viewed a face and then either described the face or completed a distractor task. Next, participants in Experiment 1 engaged in a perceptual task in the form of a series of mazes or a verbal task. Participants who described the face and completed the mazes experienced a release from verbal overshadowing as compared to participants who described the face and completed the verbal task. In Experiment 2, verbal overshadowing was alleviated when participants listened to instrumental music after describing the face, thus demonstrating that an auditory perceptual task can also release verbal overshadowing. The results of these two experiments provide support for a processing shift interpretation of verbal overshadowing. Furthermore, the results indicate this shift can be alleviated, and perceptual processing reinstated, by engaging in an unrelated perceptually oriented task such as completing a maze or listening to music. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex and oculomotor control

PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 4 2005
Ulrich Ettinger
Abstract Prepulse inhibition and the suppression of reflexive saccades on the antisaccade task are thought to tap inhibitory function. Reports of a lack of association between these measures suggest that they reflect different facets of inhibition. This study aimed to reexamine this relationship in a large sample and investigate the association of prepulse inhibition with oculomotor tasks that require inhibition of a reflexive saccade with lower concurrent processing demands than antisaccades, namely the oculomotor delayed response and fixation with distractors tasks. One hundred and seven healthy volunteers took part. Prepulse inhibition was uncorrelated with oculomotor performance. The error rate was highest for antisaccades, intermediate for the delayed response task, and lowest for fixation with distractors, and was correlated across tasks. These findings provide no evidence of a relationship between prepulse inhibition and oculomotor inhibition. Failure in suppressing reflexive saccades toward a peripheral target may represent a common inhibitory component underlying these oculomotor tasks. [source]