Visual attention and temporal binding [Elektronische Ressource] / vorgelegt von Frank Bauer

Frank Bauer

Sujets

• Psychologie

Informations

• Publié par: ludwig-maximilians-universitat_munchen
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2005
• Nombre de lectures: 23
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Visual Attention and Temporal Binding
Inaugural-Dissertation
zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Philosophie
an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
München
vorgelegt von
Frank Bauer
aus
München
München, November 2005Referent: Prof. Dr. Hermann J. Müller
Korreferent: Prof. Dr. Werner X. Schneider
Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 19.12.2005Visual Attention and Temporal Binding
Frank Bauer
München 2005
Contents
Acknowledgments ______________________________________________________ iii
Chapter 1: Introduction __________________________________________________ 1
Visual Attention _____________________________________________________________ 2
Selection of Information _____________________________________________________________2
Selective Visual Attention____________________________________________________________3
Space-based Attention ____________________________________________________________3
Object-based Attention____________________________________________________________5
The Visual Search paradigm________________________________________________________7
Feature Integration Theory _________________________________________________________8
Guided Search _________________________________________________________________10
The Binding Problem________________________________________________________ 11
Evidence of separated feature processing from cognitive psychology __________________________13
Neurophysiological background of the binding problem____________________________________14
Solutions to the binding problem______________________________________________________16
Psychophysical approach to test the Temporal Binding Hypothesis ___________________________20
Chapter 2: Synopsis ____________________________________________________ 23
Chapter 3: Attentional Modulation of Synchrony Priming? ___________________ 35
Abstract___________________________________________________________________ 36
Theoretical Background _____________________________________________________ 37
Scope of the study___________________________________________________________ 39
General Method ____________________________________________________________ 43
Experiment 1 ______________________________________________________________ 46
Experiment 2 ______________________________________________________________ 55
Experiment 3 ______________________________________________________________ 61
Experiment 4 ______________________________________________________________ 70
Experiment 5 ______________________________________________________________ 78
General Discussion__________________________________________________________ 89
Chapter 4: Effects of Multiple Synchronous Primes __________________________ 95
Abstract___________________________________________________________________ 96
Theoretical background______________________________________________________ 97
Scope of the study__________________________________________________________ 100
General Method ___________________________________________________________ 102
Experiment 1 _____________________________________________________________ 106
Experiment 2 _____________________________________________________________ 118
Experiment 3 _____________________________________________________________ 128
Experiment 4 _____________________________________________________________ 139
General Discussion_________________________________________________________ 151

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Chapter 5: Target-Figure Dependence of Synchrony Priming_________________ 155
Abstract__________________________________________________________________ 156
Theoretical background_____________________________________________________ 157
Scope of the study__________________________________________________________ 160
General Method ___________________________________________________________ 162
Experiment 1 _____________________________________________________________ 165
Experiment 2 _____________________________________________________________ 175
Experiment 3 _____________________________________________________________ 182
Experiment 4 _____________________________________________________________ 188
General Discussion_________________________________________________________ 196
References ___________________________________________________________ 199
Deutsche Zusammenfassung ____________________________________________ 211
Curriculum Vitae _____________________________________________________ 225

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Acknowledgments
This dissertation was written at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich and
supported by grant FOR480/1 from the German Research Foundation (DFG).
First of all, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Hermann J. Müller for his support and
supervision of this thesis. In addition, I am grateful to Dr. Mark A. Elliott and Dr.
Zhuanghua Shi for discussing results of experiments and the specials of synchrony
priming with me. I also would like to thank PD Dr. Joseph Krummenacher for his
assistance in statistical questions and that he inspired my interest in Experimental
Psychology since my frist days as a student helper. Thanks are also addressed to Prof. Dr.
Werner X. Schneider for his support during the last three years and for ingenious Sunday
discussions.
Special thanks go to my parents, Hermann and Helga, and my sister Sabine for
their endless support during the past years. Last but not least, I would like to thank
Doerthe to be able to stand to me during the single development stages of this thesis.
Frank Bauer
Munich, November 2005

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Chapter 1: IntroductionIntroduction
Visual Attention
If we open our eyes, one has the natural impression of seeing and recognizing
objects or persons without any effort. However, at the same time, our brain copes with a
huge mass of information that continuously streams to us through our eyes. A mechanism
is neccessary which selects the most relevant information at a time in an efficient and
economic way. Examples of everyday life are the identification of a required level button
in an elevator or the quick recognition of the sought-for link on a website. Visual attention
provides our brain with such a selection mechanism. By means of visual attention,
behaviorally relevant information can be selected and irrelevant information can be
ignored or suppressed. Visual attention can also enhance or modulate the selected
information according to the state and goals of a perceiver. In this way, we become active
agents in information processing and we can interact with our environment in a goal-
directed manner.
Selection of Information
Our visual system has some ‘hard-wired’ selection mechanisms. For example, high
resolution can only be provided at the fovea of our retina, because of a nearly one to one
connections of sensory receptor cells with ganglion cells, whose axons make their way up
the optic nerve. Visual attention is a set of mechanism that can be deployed on information
which has already passed the early hard-wired selection stages. In the middle of the last
century, a debate arose about the locus of attentional selection. On ‘early-selection’ theory
(Broadbent, 1958), irrelevant information is filtered by physical attributes of the input
information (e.g., left or right ear). The other extreme, late-selection, proposed that

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