Attentional capture by entirely irrelevant distractors

Studies of attentional capture often question whether an irrelevant distractor will capture attention or be successfully ignored (e.g., Folk & Remington, 1998). Here we establish a new measure of attentional capture by distractors that are entirely irrelevant to the task in terms of visual appearance, meaning, and location (colourful cartoon figures presented in the periphery while subjects perform a central letter-search task). The presence of such a distractor significantly increased search RTs, suggesting it captured attention despite its task-irrelevance. Such attentional capture was found regardless of whether the search target was a singleton or not, and for both frequent and infrequent distractors, as well as for meaningful and meaningless distractor stimuli, although the cost was greater for infrequent and meaningful distractors. These results establish stimulus-driven capture by entirely irrelevant distractors and thus provide a demonstration of attentional capture that is more akin to distraction by irrelevant stimuli in daily life

The Family History of Kourtney L. Yantis

Kourtney Lawren Yantis authored this family history as part of the course requirements for HIST 550/700 Your Family in History offered online in Winter/Fall 2018 and was submitted to the Pittsburg State University Digital Commons. Please contact the author directly with any questions or comments: [email protected]

The Role of Attributions in Stereotype Threat Effects: Female Achievements in STEM Domains

Despite some advances, the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields persists. Stereotype threat has been cited as a debilitating phenomenon that may contribute to the underrepresentation of women in STEM domains (e.g., Ambady, Shih, Kim, & Pittinsky,2001). Using the attributional model of stereotypes (Reyna, 2000), the current work explores the role of attributions in a stereotype threat context. Seventy-two female undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of four attribution conditions to explain female detriments in logical reasoning: effort, ability, society, or no stereotype. All participants then completed a test of logical reasoning. Although previous research has shown that when gender differences are attributed to effort, stereotype threat effects are reduced (i.e., women do not display performance deficits), the current results suggest that although participants in this condition attempted more problems, their accuracy was compromised as a result. The results are discussed in terms of the demands of women in STEM domains as well as the unique information implied by attributional stereotypes

THE RAILSPLITTER AND THE PATHFINDER: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND JOHN C. FRÉMONT

This study serves as an analysis of the connections between Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States and John Charles Frémont as a Civil War general. Lincoln’s position within history is solid, unlike that of John C. Frémont. The thesis will elevate Frémont to a higher status as a historical figure by arguing that the emancipation edict that he issued for Missouri in August of 1861 would influence Abraham Lincoln’s preliminary emancipation proclamation of September 1862, even though Lincoln repealed Frémont’s decree. In biographies of each man, their interactions are merely a small part of the stories of their lives, but the interconnected nature of their Civil War experiences shaped the process of emancipation in the United States. Fully understanding the ways in which emancipation unfolded, and how John C. Frémont contributed to that, can allow for a less biased understanding of emancipation’s history, and restore to its rightful place the names of those who helped guide the way. Abraham Lincoln did not initially intend to emancipate all slaves in the South. And although the proclamation was his, the people who helped form it deserve commendation for their role in shaping history. Nor was John C. Frémont an entirely commendable figure, but was instead one who made many mistakes. Studying the relationship between these men can illuminate another side of Lincoln that is frequently glossed over, and can also show Frémont’s strengths and weaknesses, rather than merely looking at one side of the story, as many histories have done

Transactional Analysis in Managerial and Supervisory Training and Development Programs

Dr. Knox is with the Graduate School of Administration at Capital University, Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Yantis is Director of Business and Economic Research, University of Nevada at Las Vegas

Neural Correlates of Learning to Attend

Recent work has shown that training can improve attentional focus. Little is known, however, about how training in attention and multitasking affects the brain. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure changes in cortical responses to distracting stimuli during training on a visual categorization task. Training led to a reduction in behavioral distraction effects, and these improvements in performance generalized to untrained conditions. Although large regions of early visual and posterior parietal cortices responded to the presence of distractors, these regions did not exhibit significant changes in their response following training. In contrast, middle frontal gyrus did exhibit decreased distractor-related responses with practice, showing the same trend as behavior for previously observed distractor locations. However, the neural response in this region diverged from behavior for novel distractor locations, showing greater activity. We conclude that training did not change the robustness of the initial sensory response, but led to increased efficiency in late-stage filtering in the trained conditions

Visual distraction in cytopathology: should we be concerned?

Visual distraction in cytopathology has not been previously investigated as a source of diagnostic error, presumably because the viewing field of a conventional light microscope is considered large enough to minimise interference from peripheral visual stimuli. Virtual microscopy, which involves the examination of digitised images of pathology specimens on computer screens, is beginning to challenge the central role of light microscopy as a diagnostic tool in cytopathology. The relatively narrow visual angle offered by virtual microscopy makes it conceivable that users of these systems are more vulnerable to visual interference. Using a variant of a visual distraction paradigm (the Eriksen flanker task), the aim of the study was to determine whether the accuracy and speed of interpreting cells on a central target screen is affected by images of cells and text displayed on neighbouring monitors under realistic reading room conditions

Arabella, I\u27ll Be Your Fellah

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/3934/thumbnail.jp