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Human vision is remarkably good at recovering the latent hierarchical structure of dynamic scenes. Here, we explore how visual attention operates with this hierarchical motion representation. The way in which attention responds to surface physical features has been extensively explored. However, we know little about how the distribution of attention can be distorted by the latent hierarchical structure. To explore this topic, we conducted two experiments to investigate the relationship between minimal graph distance (MGD), one key factor in hierarchical representation, and attentional distribution. In Experiment 1, we constructed three hierarchical structures consisting of two moving objects with different MGDs. In Experiment 2, we generated three moving objects from one hierarchy to eliminate the influence of different structures. Attention was probed by the classic congruent–incongruent cueing paradigm. Our results show that the cueing effect is significantly smaller when the MGD between two objects is shorter, which suggests that attention is not evenly distributed across multiple moving objects but distorted by their latent hierarchical structure. As neither the latent structure nor the graph distance was part of the explicit task, our results also imply that both the construction of hierarchical representation and the attention to that representation are spontaneous and automatic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human vision is remarkably good at recovering the latent hierarchical structure of dynamic scenes. Here, we explore how visual attention operates with this hierarchical motion representation. The way in which attention responds to surface physical features has been extensively explored. However, we know little about how the distribution of attention can be distorted by the latent hierarchical structure. To explore this topic, we conducted two experiments to investigate the relationship between minimal graph distance (MGD), one key factor in hierarchical representation, and attentional distribution. In Experiment 1, we constructed three hierarchical structures consisting of two moving objects with different MGDs. In Experiment 2, we generated three moving objects from one hierarchy to eliminate the influence of different structures. Attention was probed by the classic congruent–incongruent cueing paradigm. Our results show that the cueing effect is significantly smaller when the MGD between two objects is shorter, which suggests that attention is not evenly distributed across multiple moving objects but distorted by their latent hierarchical structure. As neither the latent structure nor the graph distance was part of the explicit task, our results also imply that both the construction of hierarchical representation and the attention to that representation are spontaneous and automatic.

Mentalizing, where humans infer the mental states of others, facilitates understanding and interaction in social situations. Humans also tend to adopt mentalizing strategies when interacting with robotic agents. There is an ongoing debate about how inferred mental states affect gaze following, a key component of joint attention. Although the gaze from a robot induces gaze following, the impact of mental state attribution on robotic gaze following remains unclear. To address this question, we asked forty-nine young adults to perform a gaze cueing task during whichmental state attribution wasmanipulated as follows. Participants sat facing a robot that turned its head to the screen at its left or right. Their task was to respond to targets that appeared either at the screen the robot gazed at or at the other screen. At the baseline, the robot was positioned so that participants would perceive it as being able to see the screens. We expected faster response times to targets at the screen the robot gazed at than targets at the non-gazed screen (i.e., gaze cueing effect). In the experimental condition, the robot's line of sight was occluded by a physical barrier such that participants would perceive it as unable to see the screens. Our results revealed gaze cueing effects in both conditions although the effect was reduced in the occluded condition compared to the baseline. These results add to the expanding fields of social cognition and human-robot interaction by suggesting thatmentalizing has an impact on robotic gaze following. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mentalizing, where humans infer the mental states of others, facilitates understanding and interaction in social situations. Humans also tend to adopt mentalizing strategies when interacting with robotic agents. There is an ongoing debate about how inferred mental states affect gaze following, a key component of joint attention. Although the gaze from a robot induces gaze following, the impact of mental state attribution on robotic gaze following remains unclear. To address this question, we asked forty-nine young adults to perform a gaze cueing task during which mental state attribution was manipulated as follows. Participants sat facing a robot that turned its head to the screen at its left or right. Their task was to respond to targets that appeared either at the screen the robot gazed at or at the other screen. At the baseline, the robot was positioned so that participants would perceive it as being able to see the screens. We expected faster response times to targets at the screen the robot gazed at than targets at the non-gazed screen (i.e., gaze cueing effect). In the experimental condition, the robot's line of sight was occluded by a physical barrier such that participants would perceive it as unable to see the screens. Our results revealed gaze cueing effects in both conditions although the effect was reduced in the occluded condition compared to the baseline. These results add to the expanding fields of social cognition and human-robot interaction by suggesting that mentalizing has an impact on robotic gaze following.

Although emerging evidence suggests that developmental dyslexia shows deficits in visual-spatial attention, previous studies have also confirmed that visual-spatial attention may be particularly important for reading among Chinese children with dyslexia. However, the visual-spatial attention deficit of dyslexic Chinese children has not been fully investigated. Therefore, the present study employed the cue-target paradigm and examined whether the earlier processing of visual-spatial attention deficit would be found in Chinese children with dyslexia. More importantly, we combined read level match design to determine the process of visual-spatial attention in Chinese children with dyslexia related to developmental delay or cognitive deficits. Results showed that developmental dyslexia (DD) group exhibited no cueing effect in the cue-target tasks when the stimulus onset synchronies (SOAs) were set to 100 ms, as compared with the children's chronological age (CA). With the cueing effect as the index, we also observed that the CA group had a robust facilitation effect in early processing of visual-spatial attention. Importantly, the DD group presented an impaired facilitation effect as the same reading level (RL) group controls when SOAs were 100 ms and 350 ms. These findings suggested that impaired facilitation effect in Chinese dyslexic children is due to a developmental delay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple-view visualisation leads to additional switching cost on attention management between viewports. In this study, we compare the cueing effect of chromatic and achromatic colours on mitigating viewport switching cost in multiple-view visualisations through the dual-task paradigm. There is a concurrent need for managing attention within and between viewports, and performing a three single-digit mental addition task, which poses challenge for the capacity-limited working memory (WM). Response time and total fixation count support the benefit of chromatic colours in within-viewport attention management. First-pass progressive fixation time reveals that chromatic colours lead to better coherence within the viewport than achromatic colours, and there exist a correction process for attention misguidance in invalid cueing conditions. We employed re-visitation count and duration as direct measures of WM reinstatement. Fewer re-visitation count and shorter duration in the valid chromatic cueing condition indicate that more WM resources were freed up for the primary task, and reduced resources were depleted on overcoming the viewport switching cost. The positive role of valid chromatic colour cues become increasingly evident when more viewports presented simultaneously. The study provides eye movement evidence that chromatic cues can effectively lessen the switching cost on attention management in multiple-view visualisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a virtual community, the behavior of strengthening the emotion of a post title to draw attention of users is not uncommon, which can affect the overall performance of the information environment. This study focuses on exploring the influence of the emotional information of a post title on the users' community perceived value in a virtual community. Based on the cue utilization theory, we propose a framework with several hypotheses. Data are collected using the experimental method from the college student sample in our study, and numerous tests are performed to analyze the data and verify the hypotheses. At the end of the study, it is found that the emotional information of the post title reduces the user community perceived financial value and it improves the user community perceived recreational value. The analysis of the mediating role reveals that emotional involvement facilitates the relationship between emotional information of post titles and user community perceived recreational value. This study adds a new dimension by discussing the user community value perception on post title expression and it reveals the conflict of interest between the manager of the virtual community and the producers of the post. Our findings may also provide guidelines and references for virtual community managers. Specifically, they should view the behavior of making post titles more emotional critically, and choose specific information management strategies based on the different value pursuit of community users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies using N2pc as a marker of attentional capture have demonstrated top‐down contingent capture for salient color singletons: Among all salient cues that are not predictive of the target location, only cues similar to searched‐for target features, and thus, matching to the top‐down attentional control settings capture attention. This is reflected in matching cue's elicitation of an N2pc and a cueing effect in behavior, and the absence of the corresponding effects for non‐matching cues (with features dissimilar to that of the searched‐for targets). Yet, with abrupt‐onset cues, corresponding evidence is missing, inviting speculations about the potential of abrupt‐onset cues to capture attention followed by quick suppression within the target displays. Here, we used two types of abrupt‐onset cues to test if capture by such cues also adheres to the contingent‐capture principle: matching abrupt‐onset cues with a color similar to the top‐down control settings and non‐matching abrupt‐onset cues with a color different from all searched‐for targets. With the help of these cues, top‐down contingent capture was supported. Only matching abrupt‐onset cues elicited an N2pc and a behavioral cueing effect. Depending on the exact side conditions, non‐matching cues either elicited no N2pc or a PD (i.e., evidence of active suppression). Results are discussed against the background of competing theories on attention capture by abrupt‐onset cues. The current study demonstrates top‐down contingent capture with color matching versus color non‐matching abrupt‐onset cues. In three experiments, we show that only abrupt‐onset cues with the same color as the target capture attention. Our results are based on participants' reaction times and their event‐related potentials. Our study closes an important gap in the literature and addresses the speculations about potential bottom‐up capture by abrupt onsets hidden in the cue‐target interval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past studies showed increased sensitivity to other people’s gaze after social exclusion. In the present research, across two studies, we tested whether social exclusion could affect the basic cognitive phenomenon of gaze-cueing effect, namely, the tendency to redirect visual attention to the same location that other people are looking at. To this purpose, participants were socially excluded or included using the Cyberball manipulation. In Study 1, after the manipulation, participants performed a gaze-cueing task in which an individual’s gaze, oriented rightward or leftward, preceded a peripheral target stimulus requiring a simple categorization response. The gaze direction could be congruent or incongruent with the location of the target. Results revealed a reduced gaze-cueing effect for socially excluded than for socially included participants. In Study 2, where human gazes were replaced by arrow cues, such an interaction between social exclusion and trial congruency disappeared, indicating a specific effect of social stimuli. We interpreted these findings with the notion that excluded participants can perceive an averted gaze as a further sign of social exclusion, thus showing a reduced gaze-cueing effect.

Temporal expectation relies on different predictive information, such as regular rhythms and symbolic cues, to direct attention to a future moment in time to optimize behaviour. However, whether differences exist between temporal expectations driven by regular rhythms and symbolic cues has not been clearly established. In this study, 20 participants performed two temporal expectation tasks in which a rhythmic cue or a symbolic cue indicated (70% expected) that the target would appear after an interval of 500 ms (short), 1,500 ms (medium), or 2,500 ms (long). We found larger cueing effects for the rhythmic cued task than for the symbolic cued task during the short interval, indicating that rhythmic cues were more effective in improving performance. Furthermore, no significant difference was found during the longer interval, reflect that the behavioural differences between the two forms of temporal expectations were likely to diminish as the time interval increased. Thus, we speculate that the temporal expectation driven by rhythmic cues differs from that driven by symbolic cues only in the limited time range; however, the mechanisms underlying the two forms of temporal expectations trend to become more similar over increasing temporal scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past studies showed increased sensitivity to other people's gaze after social exclusion. In the present research, across two studies, we tested whether social exclusion could affect the basic cognitive phenomenon of gaze-cueing effect, namely, the tendency to redirect visual attention to the same location that other people are looking at. To this purpose, participants were socially excluded or included using the Cyberball manipulation. In Study 1, after the manipulation, participants performed a gaze-cueing task in which an individual's gaze, oriented rightward or leftward, preceded a peripheral target stimulus requiring a simple categorization response. The gaze direction could be congruent or incongruent with the location of the target. Results revealed a reduced gaze-cueing effect for socially excluded than for socially included participants. In Study 2, where human gazes were replaced by arrow cues, such an interaction between social exclusion and trial congruency disappeared, indicating a specific effect of social stimuli. We interpreted these findings with the notion that excluded participants can perceive an averted gaze as a further sign of social exclusion, thus showing a reduced gaze-cueing effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature has demonstrated that hand position can affect visual processing, a set of phenomena termed Near Hand Effects (NHEs). Across four studies we looked for single-hand NHEs on a large screen when participants were asked to discriminate stimuli based on size, colour, and orientation (Study 1), to detect stimuli after a manipulation of hand shaping (Study 2), to detect stimuli after the introduction of a peripheral cue (Study 3), and finally to detect stimuli after a manipulation of screen orientation (Study 4). Each study failed to find a NHE. Further examination of the pooled data using a Bayesian analysis also failed to reveal positive evidence for faster responses or larger cueing effects near a hand. These findings suggest that at least some NHEs may be surprisingly fragile, which dovetails with the recent proposition that NHEs may not form a unitary set of phenomena (Gozli & Deng, 2018). The implication is that visual processing may be less sensitive to hand position across measurement techniques than previously thought, and points to a need for well-powered, methodologically rigorous studies on this topic in the future.

The present study aimed to determine whether the impairments in joint attention observed in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in clinical studies were influenced by self‐relevant processing. To investigate this possibility, participants were trained to associate two cues (a female face and male face) with distinct words ("self" and "other"). The ASD and typically developing (TD) groups both demonstrated a significant self‐relevant effect, responding more quickly to self‐pairs than to other pairs. Then, two types of sound (voice and tone) used as targets were manipulated to determine whether the influence of self‐relevance on the cueing effect would be similar between individuals with ASD and TD individuals. Individuals with ASD exhibited reduced cueing effect to voice vs. tone targets, whereas TD individuals showed an enhanced cueing effect to voice vs. tone targets when using self‐relevant, but not other‐relevant, gaze cues. The present results suggest that individuals with ASD exhibit intact self‐relevant processing but that the self‐relevant processing affects the attentional system of individuals with ASD in a manner different from that of TD individuals and that this difference depends on the self‐relevance of the specific target stimuli. Autism Research2018, 11: 1522–1531. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Lay Summary: Observing another person's eye gaze induces attentional shift in the onlooker. Clinical studies have reported that social interaction, including gaze‐triggered attention, is impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), while psychological studies have generally reported intact gaze‐triggered attention in ASD. This study provided new evidence indicating that gaze‐triggered attention is influenced by self‐relevant processing in a different manner in ASD individuals than it is in TD individuals. The magnitude of attentional shift triggered by the self‐relevant gaze cue was associated with symptom severity in ASD. The functional but atypical self‐relevant processing might be able to explain discrepancies in social attention between experimental and real situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The orienting of attention has been found to be influenced by the previous cueing status in a spatial-cueing paradigm. The explanation for this sequence effect remains uncertain. This study separated the involuntary and the voluntary components of arrow cueing by manipulating the predicted target locations. For example, a left arrow cue may have indicated that the target was more likely to appear at the up location. Therefore, three trial types were repeated or switched between trials: cued (targets appeared along the direction of the arrows), predicted (targets appeared at the locations predicted by the arrows), and unrelated (targets appeared at the other two locations, neither cued nor predicted). RTs of cued trials were found to be significantly facilitated after a previous cued trial; however, the same effect was not observed for predicted trials. The results suggest that significant sequence effects are induced only in the involuntary component of arrow cueing. The findings support the feature-integration hypothesis for the sequence effect of symbolic cueing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinically, social interaction, including gaze-triggered attention, has been reported to be impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but psychological studies have generally shown intact gaze-triggered attention in ASD. These studies typically examined gaze-triggered attention under simple environmental conditions. In real life, however, the environment is complex. Previous studies have shown that an enhanced cueing effect was found when using eye gaze compared with arrow cues in unpredictably complex conditions in typically developing (TD) individuals. However, in the current study, compared with TD individuals, the cueing effect failed to enhance when using eye gaze compared with arrow cues under complex conditions in individuals with ASD. This may reflect the atypical style of gaze-triggered attention when individuals with ASD adapt to environmental complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention orienting has been found to be influenced by the previous cueing status in a spatial cueing paradigm. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the cue predictive values or the spatial correspondence learning between cues and targets could influence the sequence effect of symbolic cueing. The findings revealed that the predictive values of arrow or word cues do not lead to different sequence effects, but that visually asymmetrical letter cues, which allow spatial correspondence learning between cues and targets, induce stronger sequence effects than visually symmetrical letter cues. In addition, visually symmetrical directional word cues can induce sequence effects. The results suggest that spatial correspondence learning, although not obligatory, is critical for the sequence effects of symbolic cueing. The findings support the feature-integration hypothesis, rather than the strategic adjustments account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across three experiments, we examined the efficacy of three cues from the human body-body orientation, head turning, and eye-gaze direction-to shift an observer's attention in space. Using a modified Posner cueing paradigm, we replicate the previous findings of gender differences in the gaze-cueing effect whereby female but not male participants responded significantly faster to validly cued than to invalidly cued targets. In contrast to the previous studies, we report a robust cueing effect for both male and female participants when head turning direction was used as the central cue, whereas oriented bodies proved ineffectual as cues to attention for both males and females. These results are discussed with reference to the time course of central cueing effects, gender differences in spatial attention, and current models of how cues from the human body are combined to judge another person's direction of attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neural bases of the so-called Spatial Cueing Effect in a visuo-auditory version of the Central Cue Posneŕs Paradigm (CCPP) are analyzed by means of behavioral patterns (Reaction Times and Errors) and Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), namely the Contingent Negative Variation (CNV), N1, P2a, P2p, P3a, P3b and Negative Slow Wave (NSW). The present version consisted of three types of trial blocks with different validity/invalidity proportions: 50% valid – 50% invalid trials, 68% valid – 32% invalid trials and 86% valid − 14% invalid trials. Thus, ERPs can be analyzed as the proportion of valid trials per block increases. Behavioral (Reaction Times and Incorrect responses) and ERP (lateralized component of CNV, P2a, P3b and NSW) results showed a spatial cueing effect as the proportion of valid trials per block increased. Results suggest a brain activity modulation related to sensory-motor attention and working memory updating, in order to adapt to external unpredictable contingencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated whether learning how to use a web service with an interactive tutorial can be enhanced by cueing. We expected the attentional guidance provided by visual cues to facilitate the selection of information in static screen displays that corresponded to spoken explanations. Unlike most previous studies in this area, we chose to implement a self-paced learning environment in this experiment. This would allow learners in the no-cueing condition to try and compensate for their visual search difficulties by reviewing the visual information during pauses between slides. They would not, however, be able to process auditory and visual information jointly in working memory (temporal contiguity effect), as learners would be able to do in the cueing condition. Results showed that, as predicted, the presence of cues (arrows pointing to each aurally evoked item in turn) (1) led to a reduction in the amount of time spent reviewing the visual information during pauses, (2) better learning of the verbal information (but without any effect on a subsequent procedural task, contrary to our hypothesis), and (3) greater perceived ease of learning. These results suggest that cueing can direct attention to the right area of the screen at the right time, thereby improving learning, even in self-regulated learning environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report two experiments showing that dynamically orienting our own face facilitates the automatic attraction of attention. We had participants complete a cueing task where they had to judge the orientation of a lateralized target cued by a central face that dynamically changed its orientation. Experiment 1 showed a reliable cueing effect from both self- and friend-faces at a long stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), however, the self-faces exclusively generated a spatial cueing effect at a short SOA. In Experiment 2, event-related potential (ERP) data to the face cues showed larger amplitudes in the N1 component for self-faces relative to friend- and unfamiliar-faces. In contrast, the amplitude of the P3 component was reduced for self compared with friend- and unfamiliar-other cues. The size of the self-bias effect in N1 correlated with the strength of self-biases in P3. The results indicate that dynamic changes in the orientation of one’s own face can provide a strong ecological cue for attention, enhancing sensory responses (N1) and reducing any subsequent uncertainty (P3) in decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The unfavorable consequence of biased attention to peripheral objects was reported with the use of a newly proposed differential magnification method by the authors. Given the favorable influence of auditory cueing on attention orientation, this study investigated the effectiveness of auditory cues in directing participants' attention from the peripheral to foveal areas of the differential magnifying lens for improving inspection performance. Thirty-nine Chinese undergraduates performed a simulated inspection task using a particular magnification method (between-participant factor). Three within-participant factors of auditory cue interval, target difficulty, and magnification power were tested. Objective performance measures of speed and accuracy and subjective evaluation using NASA task load index were collected and analyzed. The results showed that positive effects of auditory cues were found for the differential magnification methods but not for the traditional linear magnification method. Significant effects of target difficulty and magnification power were also found. It was concluded that the aid of auditory cues, which did not share the same attentional resource with the visual inspection task, proved to be an appropriate reminder for the differential magnification methods to improve participants' visual inspection performance. Attention should also be paid to selecting an appropriate auditory cue interval for search tasks of different target difficulties. The findings of this study have implications for the design of video magnifiers in the context of multimodal human-machine interfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown that attention orienting is influenced by the orienting processes of previous trials in a spatial-cueing paradigm. This sequence effect is due to the fact that performance is facilitated when cue validity (valid or invalid) repeats between trials. In this study, we investigated the influences of cue direction and target location on the sequence effect of symbolic cueing with a nonpredictive central arrow cue. The cue direction was manipulated to always point in a certain direction in one condition, and to always point in the opposite direction in a second condition. The results showed that sequence effects were enhanced by the alternation of cue direction and target location and were impaired by the repetition of cue direction and target location. The same result pattern was found when the cue direction was chosen randomly in the third condition. The results suggested that both the repetition advantage effect of cue validity and the alternation advantage effect of cue direction and target location are involved in the sequence effect within the symbolic-cueing paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-referential stimuli such as self-face surpass other-referential stimuli in capture of attention, which has been attributed to attractive perceptual features of self-referential stimuli. We investigated whether temporarily established self-referential stimuli are different from other-referential cues in guiding voluntary visual attention. Temporarily established self-referential or friend-referential shapes served as central cues in Posner's endogenous cueing task. We found that, relative to friend-referential cues, self-referential cues induced smaller cueing effect (i.e., the difference in reaction times to targets at cued and uncued locations) when the interstimulus interval was short but larger cueing effect when the interstimulus interval was long. Our findings suggest that temporarily established self-referential cues are more efficient to capture reflexive attention at the early stage of perceptual processing and to shift voluntary attention at the later stage of perceptual processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehension of an illustrated document can involve complex visual scanning in order to locate the relevant information on the screen when this is evoked in spoken explanations. The present study examined the effects of two types of attention-guiding means (color change or step-by-step presentation of diagram elements synchronized with a spoken explanation) on multimedia learning. These attention-guiding means were expected to facilitate selection of the illustrated information that corresponded to the spoken explanations. The results indicated positive, and in some cases additive, effects on a retention task and on the perceived ease of learning but not on a transfer task. These results are discussed in light of models of multimedia learning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose: In a landmark study, B. A. Wright et al. (1997) reported an apparent backward-masking deficit in language-learning-impaired children. Subsequently, the controversial interpretation of those results has been influential in guiding treatments for childhood language problems. This study revisited the temporal-masking paradigm reported by B. A. Wright et al. to evaluate adult listener signal/masker uncertainty effects for some of their key stimulus conditions. New signal conditions presented off frequency from the masker also were evaluated to assess conditions of reduced signal/masker confusion. Method: Masked detection was measured for 20-ms sinusoids (480, 1000, or 1680 Hz) presented at temporal positions before, during, or after a gated narrowband (bandwidth = 600-1400 Hz) masker. Listener uncertainty was investigated by cueing various stimulus temporal properties with a 6000-Hz sinusoid presented contralateral to the test ear. Results: The primary cueing effect was measured in the backward-masking condition for the cue gated simultaneously with the on-frequency 1000-Hz signal. The resulting cued masked-detection threshold was reduced to quiet threshold. No significant cueing effects were obtained for other signal temporal positions in the masker or for any off-frequency signal conditions. Conclusions: These results for normal adult listeners indicate that on-frequency backward masking can be eliminated by cueing the signal, and thus, these findings raise the possibility that the deficit reported by B. A. Wright et al. for language-learning-impaired children may reflect inordinate signal/masker confusion, rather than a temporal-processing deficit per se. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal expectation relies on different predictive information, such as regular rhythms and symbolic cues, to direct attention to a future moment in time to optimize behaviour. However, whether differences exist between temporal expectations driven by regular rhythms and symbolic cues has not been clearly established. In this study, 20 participants performed two temporal expectation tasks in which a rhythmic cue or a symbolic cue indicated (70% expected) that the target would appear after an interval of 500 ms (short), 1,500 ms (medium), or 2,500 ms (long). We found larger cueing effects for the rhythmic cued task than for the symbolic cued task during the short interval, indicating that rhythmic cues were more effective in improving performance. Furthermore, no significant difference was found during the longer interval, reflect that the behavioural differences between the two forms of temporal expectations were likely to diminish as the time interval increased. Thus, we speculate that the temporal expectation driven by rhythmic cues differs from that driven by symbolic cues only in the limited time range; however, the mechanisms underlying the two forms of temporal expectations trend to become more similar over increasing temporal scales.

The present study aimed to determine whether the impairments in joint attention observed in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in clinical studies were influenced by self-relevant processing. To investigate this possibility, participants were trained to associate two cues (a female face and male face) with distinct words ("self" and "other"). The ASD and typically developing (TD) groups both demonstrated a significant self-relevant effect, responding more quickly to self-pairs than to other pairs. Then, two types of sound (voice and tone) used as targets were manipulated to determine whether the influence of self-relevance on the cueing effect would be similar between individuals with ASD and TD individuals. Individuals with ASD exhibited reduced cueing effect to voice vs. tone targets, whereas TD individuals showed an enhanced cueing effect to voice vs. tone targets when using self-relevant, but not other-relevant, gaze cues. The present results suggest that individuals with ASD exhibit intact self-relevant processing but that the self-relevant processing affects the attentional system of individuals with ASD in a manner different from that of TD individuals and that this difference depends on the self-relevance of the specific target stimuli. Autism Research 2018, 11: 1522-1531. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Observing another person's eye gaze induces attentional shift in the onlooker. Clinical studies have reported that social interaction, including gaze-triggered attention, is impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), while psychological studies have generally reported intact gaze-triggered attention in ASD. This study provided new evidence indicating that gaze-triggered attention is influenced by self-relevant processing in a different manner in ASD individuals than it is in TD individuals. The magnitude of attentional shift triggered by the self-relevant gaze cue was associated with symptom severity in ASD. The functional but atypical self-relevant processing might be able to explain discrepancies in social attention between experimental and real situations., (© 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Abstract: The present study investigated how anticipation of a target’s appearance affects human attention to gaze cues provided by a schematic face. Subjects in a ‘catch’ group received a high number of ‘catch’ trials, in which no target stimulus appeared. Subjects in the control group did not receive any catch trials. As in previous studies, both groups showed a facilitation effect to the cued location during shorter stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). In both groups, an analysis of eye movements confirmed that subjects’ eyes remained on the fixation point, ruling out the possibility that the facilitation effect was due to shifting eye movements (saccades) as opposed to a shift in covert attention. But while the control group’s response time (RT) decreased as SOA increased, the catch group’s RT had a U-shaped pattern and the facilitation effect to the cued location was reversed at the longest SOA (1005ms). These results suggest that subjects in the catch group disengaged their attention during long SOAs because they expected the trial to be a catch trial. This disengagement of attention during long SOAs results in a delay before attention could be re-focused to the previous location regardless of the cue validity [“IOR (inhibition of return)”-like-phenomenon]. Unlike the conventional IOR, we suggest that this “IOR”-like phenomenon caused by an unpredictive central gaze cue is likely to be mediated by an endogenous mechanism. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]