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Selective visual attention and motivation: The consequences of value learning in an attentional blink task.

SelectedWorks Author Profiles:

Jennifer O'Brien

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2009

Abstract

Learning to associate the probability and value of behavioral outcomes with specific stimuli (value learning) is essential for rational decision making. However, in demanding cognitive conditions, access to learned values might be constrained by limited attentional capacity. We measured recognition of briefly presented faces seen previously in a value-learning task involving monetary wins and losses; the recognition task was performed both with and without constraints on available attention. Regardless of available attention, recognition was substantially enhanced for motivationally salient stimuli (i.e., stimuli highly predictive of outcomes), compared with equally familiar stimuli that had weak or no motivational salience, and this effect was found regardless of valence (win or loss). However, when attention was constrained (because stimuli were presented during an attentional blink, AB), valence determined recognition; win-associated faces showed no AB, but all other faces showed large ABs. Motivational salience acts independently of attention to modulate simple perceptual decisions, but when attention is limited, visual processing is biased in favor of reward-associated stimuli.

Comments

Abstract only. Full-text article is available only through licensed access provided by the publisher. Published in Psychological Science, 20(8), 981-988. Members of the USF System may access the full-text of the article through the authenticated link provided.

Language

en_US

Publisher

Association for Psychological Science

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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