Research has generally suggested enhanced cognitive performance when performing jointly with others in social settings. However, the interpersonal influence on visuospatial attention was not well understood. With a newly developed dual attention paradigm, we investigated how paying attention to the same spatial location with another person affects one’s attention performance. Participant pairs independently performed go/no-go tasks to visual targets while sustainedly attending to same or different locations, and showed reduced attention effects when sharing spatial attention (Experiment 1, N = 40). This dual attention effect relied on the presence of another individual performing a similar task, being reversed when participants performed the same task in isolation (Experiment 2, N = 38), and persisted under an increased perceptual load (Experiment 3, N = 45). These data showed a diminishing effect of shared attention, likely driven by stronger response inhibition or increased mentalizing/monitoring when people attended together.
Category (2). A pupillometric system was developed to be used at the Neuroscience and Behavior Research Group from Universidad Industrial de Santander. First of all, an acquisition system (camera) was selected and implemented, taking into account that pupil diameter varies from 1.5 mm up to 8 or 9 mm, reacting to stimuli in 0.2 seconds. Then, the selected camera was characterized, a measurement and calibration protocol was implemented, and an algorithm for measuring pupil diameter was established. The system gives pupil diameter as a function of time, with an accuracy of ± 0.2 mm.
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