Modeling visual attention

Video game experience and its influence on visual attention parameters: An investigation using the framework of the Theory of Visual Attention (TVA)

“…We applied psychophysical assessment tools that are based on the theory of visual attention (TVA, Bundesen, 1990;Bundesen, Habekost, & Kyllingsbaek, 2005;Kyllingsbaek, 2006). These tools deliver, from the same set of trials, a variety of perceptual and attentional parameters that characterize several basic aspects of the individual visual attention performance of participants in a way that is free of possible influences from the motor response system.The latter is important because differences in motor response speed may also obscure differences in attention processes between video gamers and non-gamers (e.g., Castel et al, 2005;Dye et al, 2009).…”

Effects of modafinil and methylphenidate on visual attention capacity: a TVA-based study

“…A detailed formal description and the equations of TVA can be found in Kyllingsbaek (2006). On this view, visual objects are processed in parallel and compete for selection.…”

“…Overall, there were six different trial conditions (3 exposure durations×2 masking conditions), with 16 trials for each of the six conditions, presented in randomised order. From the whole-report functions, the TVA parameters for visual vSTM storage capacity and processing speed were then derived individually for each participant (see Kyllingsbaek 2006).…”

Sustained attention, attentional selectivity, and attentional capacity across the lifespan

“…The six-target whole-report trials were presented for 10, 20, 50, 80, 140, and 200 ms. The two-target whole-report trials and the partialreport trials were presented for 80 ms. TVA modelling procedures (Dyrholm, Kyllingsbaek, Espeseth & Bundesen, 2011;Kyllingsbaek, 2006) were applied to estimate the following parameters for each participant:…”

“…The VSTM system is conceived as a feedback mechanism that sustains activity in the neurons that have won the attentional competition. NTVA accounts both for a wide range of attentional effects in human performance (error rates and reaction times) and a wide range of effects observed in single cells (firing rates) in the primate visual system (for an overview, see Bundesen & Habekost, 2008;Kyllingsbaek, 2006). TVA has laid the foundation for TVA-based assessment of attentional functions, which has many advantages as compared with conventional clinical tests of visual attention: Performance is analysed into separate functional components (specificity); the method can reveal deficits that go undetected by conventional clinical testing (sensitivity); the measurement error can be quantified, and in most cases shown to be minor (reliability); and the measures that are obtained are not bound to the tasks used, but grounded in a general theory of visual attention (validity).…”