On the Blink: The Importance of Target-Distractor Similarity in Eliciting an Attentional Blink with Faces

<div><p>Temporal allocation of attention is often investigated with a paradigm in which two relevant target items are presented in a rapid sequence of irrelevant distractors. The term Attentional Blink (AB) denotes a transient impairment of awareness for the second of these two target items when presented close in time. Experimental studies reported that the AB is reduced when the second target is emotionally significant, suggesting a modulation of attention allocation. The aim of the present study was to systematically investigate the influence of target-distractor similarity on AB magnitude for faces with emotional expressions under conditions of limited attention in a series of six rapid serial visual presentation experiments. The task on the first target was either to discriminate the gender of a neutral face (Experiments 1, 3–6) or an indoor/outdoor visual scene (Experiment 2). The task on the second target required either the detection of emotional expressions (Experiments 1–5) or the detection of a face (Experiment 6). The AB was minimal or absent when targets could be easily discriminated from each other. Three successive experiments revealed that insufficient masking and target-distractor similarity could account for the observed immunity of faces against the AB in the first two experiments. An AB was present but not increased when the facial expression was irrelevant to the task suggesting that target-distractor similarity plays a more important role in eliciting an AB than the attentional set demanded by the specific task. In line with previous work, emotional faces were less affected by the AB.</p> </div

L’Art Póvera del Museu de Vilafamés a l’escola

Treball Final de Grau en Mestre o Mestra d'Educació Primària. Codi: MP1040. Curs acadèmic: 2016/2017Aquest projecte està basat en diverses activitats per tal de poder treballar l’educació artística l’art a les aules d’avui en dia. Es considera necessari que els museus estiguen vinculats a l’ensenyança, per tal de poder afavorir el aprenentatge del alumnat. Mitjançant aquest projecte aproparem el patrimoni cultural que hi ha en la localitat de Vilafamés, ja que la col·lecció del museu es un interessant recurs educatiu. El projecte s’ha dut a terme en el C.E.I.P Sant Miquel de Vilafamés, concretament en l’aula de sisé de primària, durant quatre setmanes en les que hem fet activitats progressives per tal de poder arribar a fer la seua pròpia creació d’art i poder fer una exposició final. Aquesta comença en la visita del Museu d’Art Contemporani Vicent Aguilera Cerni (MACVAC) i acaba en l’exposició en el vestíbul de l’escola. Primerament s’explica en què consisteix la corrent artística de l’Art Póvera per tal de poder-lo assimilar i reconéixer-lo en el museu. En segon lloc, realitzem una experimentació tècnica per tal de poder desenvolupar les seues pròpies creacions. Per finalitzar, treballem de forma individual el que hem vist fins ara i fem la creació del nostre producte artístic propi. I per concloure, es realitza l’exposició de les seues pròpies obres que podrem consultar als annexes en un recorregut visua

Results of the planned contrast analysis for each experiment.

<p>Note: Contrast 1 tests for a linear trend on the factor lag. Contrast 2 compares neutral vs. emotional faces and contrast 3 fearful to happy faces. Contrasts 4 and 5 investigate a linear trend on the factor lag for neutral vs. emotional and fearful vs. happy faces, respectively. Abbreviations: T1, first target, T2, second target; <i>df</i>, degrees of freedom; <i>F</i>, <i>F</i>-value; <i>p</i>, <i>p</i>-value; <i>η²</i>, effect size; N, sample size.</p

Mean accuracy for T1 and T2 in Experiment 2.

<p>Performance is depicted separately for the different facial expressions of T2. T2 detection is conditional on T1 performance. Error bars represent standard errors of the means. Abbreviations: T1, first target; T2, second target; SOA, stimulus onset asynchrony.</p

Mean accuracy for T1 and T2 in Experiment 3, 4, and 5.

<p>Target stimuli were identical to Experiment 1. Distractors were either (A) mosaic-scrambled faces, (B) inverted faces with neutral expression, or (C) upright faces with neutral expression. Performance is depicted separately for the different facial expressions of T2. T2 performance is conditional on T1 performance. Error bars represent standard errors of the means. Abbreviations: T1, first target; T2, second target; SOA, stimulus onset asynchrony.</p

Illustration of a single trial and overview of experiments.

<p>(A) After 500 ms fixation period, 25 stimuli including the two targets with a variable lag were rapidly presented (lag 3 in this example). The first <i>and</i> the second target were task-relevant. T1 was presented between position 9 and 15 in a stream of distractors followed by T2 at lags 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8. (B) The experiments differed with regard to stimuli used as T1, T2, and distractors, and dual task demands. Abbreviations: Fix, fixation; T1, first target; T2, second target; D, distractors; RSVP, rapid serial visual presentation; Exp., experiment; 2AFC, two-alternative forced-choice.</p