Competition Between Endogenous and Exogenous Orienting of Visual Attention.

Abstract

The relation between reflexive and voluntary orienting of visual attention was investigated with 4 experiments: a simple detection task, a localization task, a saccade toward the target task, and a target identification task in which discrimination difficulty was manipulated. Endogenous and exogenous orienting cues were presented in each trial and their validity was manipulated orthogonally to examine whether attention mechanisms are mediated by separate systems and whether they have additive and independent effects on visual detection and discrimination. The results showed that each orienting mechanism developed its typical and independent effect in every case except for the difficult identification task. A theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between endogenous and exogenous orienting of attention is proposed, tested, and confirmed.

Attentional capture is contingent on the interaction between task demand and stimulus salience

“…The extent of the attentional capture effect jointly depends on both the intensity of voluntary attention determined by task demand and the intensity of reflexive attention evoked by stimulus salience. As Berger, Henik, and Rafal (2005) suggested, both voluntary attention and reflexive attention were separate mechanisms that competed for shared or partly shared resources. Under low task demand, the two mechanisms had addictive and independent orienting effects and even contradicted each other.…”

Cardiac vagal tone predicts attentional engagement to and disengagement from fearful faces.

“…Based on extensive studies of the spatial cueing task, Posner and others (Bartolomeo et al, 2001;Posner & Petersen, 1990;Posner & Rothbart, 2007) have identified two different types of attentional orienting. Exogenous orienting is characterized as a bottom-up, reflexive orienting mode that is associated with neural activity of the posterior attention system, which includes the superior parietal cortex, pulvinar, and superior colliculus (Berger, Henik, & Rafal, 2005;Huang-Pollock & Jigg, 2003;Posner & Petersen, 1990;Posner & Rothbart, 2007). Exogenous orienting is typically observed when the duration between the onset of a cue and the onset of a target (stimulus onset asynchrony [SOA]) is short, peaking at 150 ms. Endogenous orienting is characterized as a top-down, voluntary attentional mode, and is associated with the anterior attention system, which includes the anterior cingulate and prefrontal cortex (Berger et al, 2005;Huang-Pollock & Jigg, 2003;Posner & Petersen, 1990;Posner & Rothbart, 2007).…”

Different Effects of Voluntary and Involuntary Attention on EEG Activity in the Gamma Band

“…It is often assumed that both forms of attention enhance perceptual processing similarly and are controlled by the same neural mechanisms (Gazzaniga et al, 1998). However, behavioral evidence indicates that voluntary and involuntary attention might have different time courses and consequences (Müller and Rabbitt, 1989;Berger et al, 2005).…”

“…Previous support for this hypothesis can be found in both behavioral and imaging work. RT studies showed that involuntary attention effects dissipate rapidly and reverse at long cuetarget stimulus onset asynchrony, whereas the effects of voluntary attention on performance are sustained (Berger et al, 2005). Prinzmetal et al (2005) suggest that there are several cases where voluntary attention affects accuracy whereas involuntary attention does not within identical stimulus conditions.…”