Selective attention under different pressure sources and perceptual loads

"Using a flanker task, this study investigated how selective attention under different perceptual loads is affected by pressure. The first three experiments examined the pressure effects on selective attention of non-emotional stimuli using letters, and the fourth experiment investigated emotional stimuli using emoticons. In Experiment 1, using a ""fixational"" flanker task and perceptual load manipulation, we found that under pressure, flanker effect was increased under high load for the outcome pressure group. In Experiment 2, we moved the ""fixational"" flanker in Experiment 1 to the periphery to see whether distractor location matters. And we replicated the pressure effects for the outcome pressure group. In Experiment 3, we investigated how distractor relevance would interact with the pressure effects by introducing an attentional capture task to Experiment 2’s design. We replicated the findings for the flanker effect in Experiment 2, and also found that distraction from task-irrelevant stimuli was not affected by outcome pressure. Experiment 4 used emotional stimuli (i.e. sad emoticons versus happy emoticons) and we did not find any pressure effects either in the flanker interference effect or in the attentional capture effect. We conclude that high outcome pressure disrupted cognitive control for non-emotional task-relevant stimuli such as letters, but did not affect emotional stimuli."

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Chu, Hengqing

Contributors dc:contributor

• Lleras, Alejandro
• Beck, Diane M.
• Berenbaum, Howard
• McCarley, Jason S.
• Kramer, Arthur F.

• Selective Attention
• Pressure
• perceptual load

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2013 Hengqing Chu

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/44795

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/44795