Rewards teach visual selective attention

Rewards teach visual selective attention

Visual selective attention is the brain function that modulates ongoing processing of retinal input in order for selected representations to gain privileged access to perceptual awareness and guide behavior. Enhanced analysis of currently relevant or otherwise salient information is often accompanied by suppressed processing of the less relevant or salient input. Recent findings indicate that r...

A learning rule that explains how rewards teach attention

1 Department of Life Sciences, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, Science Park 123, 1098 XG Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, Department of Physiology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3G 1Y6, Canada Department of Vision & Cognition, Netherlands Institute for Neurosciences, an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Meibergdreef 47, 1...

Distinct selection mechanisms for when predictions and rewards guide visual selective attention

The Angry Spotlight: Trait Anger and Selective Visual Attention to Rewards

Copy Abstract: This investigation examined links between trait anger and selective attention to threats and rewards. Existing research has focused mainly on trait anxiety and is equally consistent with several competing theoretical accounts of trait emotion and visual attention. Both valence-based and motivation-based accounts predict that trait anxiety would be associated with biased attention...

Selective visual attention to emotion.

Visual attention can be voluntarily directed toward stimuli and is attracted by stimuli that are emotionally significant. The present study explored the case when both processes coincide and attention is directed to emotional stimuli. Participants viewed a rapid and continuous stream of high-arousing erotica and mutilation stimuli as well as low-arousing control images. Each of the three stimul...