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Snowden, Thompson and Troscianko: Basic Vision

Chapter 09

Readings and References

Visual attention is only part of a much broader consideration of attention. The book by Styles (1997) gives an easy introduction to this larger field. The book by Posner and Raichle (1997) is also very informative and again places the findings of visual attention in a broader context. It also gives a lot more information on brain areas involved in attention.

Papers on specific issues

Cueing paradigm: There are literally thousands of studies that have used this paradigm. A couple of our favourites ask what really are the costs and benefits of attention (Jonides and Mack 1984) and whether colour cues can also drive attention (Snowden, 2002). You might also want to consider whether auditory cues can also shift visual attention (and vice versa): see Spence and Driver (1997).

Attention to space, objects and features: The experiments mentioned were by Duncan (1984) and by Brawn and Snowden (2000). Related issues in Box 9.2 about whether we can attend to specific features within an image were taken from Brawn and Snowden (1999). The use of PET techniques and attention to stimulus dimensions was from Corbetta et al. (1990).

Brain activity and attention: We have given very little information in this chapter about where in the brain attention is governed. This can be rectified by reading Corbetta and Shulman (2002). The studies mentioned in Box 9.2 on how what brain areas are involved in moving attention are by Corbetta et al. (1993, 1995). There is also a nice review of what happens at the level of individual cells, VEPs, etc. during attention (Kanwisher and Wojciulik, 2000). The studies cited in Boxes 9.2 and 9.3 were Clark and Hillyard (1996) for VEPs, Gandi et al. (1999) for activity in area V1, and Corbetta et al. (1990) for attention to visual features (e.g. colour).

Change blindness/spot the difference: The classic experiments using superimposed films are to be found in Neisser and Becklen (1975), with some modern amendments in Simons and Chabris (1999). The change blindness experiments are well explained by Rensink et al. (1997) and the mudsplashes by O'Regan et al. (1999).

Visual search: The field was dominated for a long time by the work of Treisman and colleagues, and the work is well summarized in Treisman (1986). More recently the distinction between serial and parallel searches has been shown to be too simplistic, and models of feature integration have been usurped by guided search-type models: a review of these can be found in Wolfe and Horowitz (2004).

Neglect: Some of the experiments mentioned in the chapter are by Marshall and Halligan (1988); Marshall and Halligan (1995) and Driver et al. (1993). For reviews of this work see Driver and Mattingley (1998). For more basic information on neglect and extinction see Rafal (1994).

 

References

Bradley, F. H. (1886). I.: Is there any special activity of attention? Mind XI(43), 305-323.

Brawn, P. T. and Snowden, R. J. (1999). Can one pay attention to a particular colour ? Perception and Psychophysics 61, 860-873. [PubMed: 10499000]  ↑

Brawn, P. T. and Snowden, R. J. (2000). Attention to overlapping objects: detection vs. discrimination of luminance changes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 26, 342-358. [PubMed: 10696622] [DOI: 10.1037/0096-1523.26.1.342]  ↑

Clark, V. P. and Hillyard, S. A. (1996). Spatial selective attention affects early extrastriate but not striate components of the visual evoked potential. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 8, 387-402.  ↑

Corbetta, M. and Shulman, G. L. (2002). Control of goal-directed and stimulus-driven attention in the brain. Nature Reviews: Neuroscience 3, 201-215. [PubMed: 11994752]  ↑

Corbetta, M., Miezin, F. M., Dobmeyer, S., Shulman, G. L., and Petersen, S. E. (1990). Attention modulation of neural processing of shape, color, and velocity in humans. Science 248, 1556-1559. [PubMed: 2360050]  ↑

Corbetta, M., Miezin, F. M., Shulman, G. L., and Petersen, S. E. (1993). A PET study of visuospatial attention. Journal of Neuroscience 13, 1202-1226. [PubMed: 8441008]  ↑

Corbetta, M., Shulman, G. L., Miezin, F. M., and Petersen, S. E. (1995). Superior parietal cortex activation during spatial attention shifts and visual feature conjunction. Science 270, 802-805. [PubMed: 7481770]  ↑

Driver, J. and Mattingley, J. B. (1998). Parietal neglect and visual awareness. Nature Neuroscience 1, 17-22. [PubMed: 10195103] [DOI: 10.1038/217]  ↑

Driver, J., Baylis, G. C., and Rafal, R. (1993). Preserved figure-ground segmentation and symmetry perception in a patient with neglect. Nature 360, 73-75. [DOI: 10.1038/360073a0]  ↑

Duncan, J. (1984). Selective attention and the organization of visual information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 113, 501-517. [DOI: 10.1037/0096-3445.113.4.501]  ↑

Gandi, S. P., Heeger, D. J., and Boynton, G. M. (1999). Spatial attention affects brain activity in human primary cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 96, 3314-3319. [DOI: 10.1073/pnas.96.6.3314]  ↑

Husain, M., Manna, S., Hodgson, T., Wojciulik, E., Driver, J., and Kennard, C. (2001). Impaired spatial working memory across saccades contributes to abnormal search in parietal neglect. Brain 124, 941-952. [PubMed: 11335696] [DOI: 10.1093/brain%2F124.5.941]

Jonides, J. and Mack, R. (1984). On the cost and benefit of cost and benefit. Psychological Bulletin 96, 29-44. [DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.96.1.29]  ↑

Kanwisher, N. and Wojciulik, E. (2000). Visual attention: insights from brain imaging. Nature Reviews: Neuroscience 1, 91-100. [PubMed: 11252779]  ↑

Marshall, J. C. and Halligan, P. W. (1988). Blindsight and insight in visuo-spatial neglect. Nature 336, 766-777. [PubMed: 3205302] [DOI: 10.1038/336766a0]  ↑

Marshall, J. C. and Halligan, P. W. (1995). Seeing the forest but only half the trees. Nature 373, 521-523. [PubMed: 7845464] [DOI: 10.1038/373521a0]  ↑

Neisser, U. and Becklen, R. (1975). Selective looking: attending to visually specified events. Cognitive Psychology 7, 480-494. [DOI: 10.1016/0010-0285%2875%2990019-5]  ↑

O'Regan, J. K., Rensink, R. A., and Clark, J. J. (1999). Blindness to scene changes caused by mudsplashes. Nature 398, 34. [PubMed: 10078528] [DOI: 10.1038/17953]  ↑

Posner, M. I. and Raichle, M. E. (1997) Images of mind. New York: Scientific American Press.   ↑

Rafal, R. (2001). Virtual neurology. Nature Neuroscience 4, 862-864. [PubMed: 11528411] [DOI: 10.1038/nn0901-862]

Rafal, R. D. (1994). Neglect. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 4, 231-236. [PubMed: 8038582] [DOI: 10.1016/0959-4388%2894%2990078-7]  ↑

Rensink, R. A., O'Regan, K., and Clark, J. J. (1997). To see or not to see: the need for attention to perceive changes in scenes. Psychological Science 8, 368-373. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.1997.tb00427.x]  ↑

Rubin, E. (1915) Visuell Wahrgenommene Figuren. Copenhagen: Gyldenalske Boghandel.

Shepard, R. N. (1990) Mind sights. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.

Simons, D. J. and Chabris, C. F. (1999). Gorillas in our midst: sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events Perception 28, 1059-1106. [PubMed: 10694957] [DOI: 10.1068/p2952]  ↑

Snowden, R. J. (2002). Visual attention to color: parvocellular guidance of attentional resources? Psychological Science 30(13), 180-184. [DOI: 10.1111/1467-9280.00433]  ↑

Spence, C. J. and Driver, J. (1997). Audiovisual links in exogenous covert spatial orienting. Perception and Psychophysics 59, 1-22. [PubMed: 9038403]  ↑

Styles, E. A. (1997) The psychology of attention. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.  ↑

Treisman, A. (1986). Features and objects in visual processing. Scientific American 255, November, 106-115.  ↑

Wolfe, J. M. and Horowitz, T. S. (2004). What attributes guide the deployment of visual attention and how do they do it? Nature Reviews: Neuroscience 5(6), 495-501. [PubMed: 15152199]  ↑