Proactive and reactive sequential effects on selective attention.

Sequences of events can affect selective attention either through proactive mechanisms, through reactive mechanisms, or through a combination of the two. The current study examined electrophysiological responses to both prime and target stimuli in a primed dichotic listening task. Each trial presented a distractor prime syllable followed by two simultaneous syllables, and participants were asked to report one of the simultaneous syllables. Trials where the participant reported the non-primed syllable showed more negative event-related potentials at prime presentation, which may indicate inhibition of the prime representation. Trials where the participant reported the primed syllable showed more negative event-related potentials at target presentation, which may indicate cognitive conflict and effortful response selection. In context of current theories, the data suggest that the interplay of a proactive inhibition bias and a reactive potential for conflict is involved in causing sequential effects on selective attention mechanisms. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Citation

Bjørn Sætrevik, René Jürgen Huster, Christoph Siegfried Herrmann. Proactive and reactive sequential effects on selective attention. Brain and cognition. 2013 Oct;83(1):27-33

PMID: 23867739

search → result