Task-set inhibition has been proposed to be an important mechanism for cognitive control in task switching. Its existence is supported largely by the observation of the N-2 repetition cost (e.g., A-B-A is slower than C-B-A). Many studies have reported an N-2 repetition cost, but several have not. Because of the...
The present study examined whether emotion perception requires central attentional resources. A dual-task paradigm was used to examine whether people can direct their attention to a face expressing a target emotion, even while they are still selecting a response to another task. Task-1 required an auditory discrimination while for Task-2,...
The present study examined whether attention capture is driven by object saliency or contingent on top-down control setting using a go/no-go paradigm. Specifically, we investigated whether salient color singletons capture attention only when the target itself is also a singleton. We used a go/no-go task. Participants were told to search...
Lien, Ruthruff, and Johnston (2010) reported that the attentional control system is able to rapidly and fully switch between different search settings (e.g., red to green), with no carryover. The present study examined whether such impressive flexibility is possible even with more complicated switches, namely singleton search and the feature...
The present study examined whether semantic activation for words occurs by encoding whole word shape in addition to individual letters. We used LEET stimuli, where digits were used as parts of words, such as “R34DING” instead of “READING”. Previous studies have suggested that LEET stimuli are encoded in a letter-like...
The present study examined whether semantic activation for words occurs by encoding whole word shape in addition to individual letters. We used LEET stimuli, where digits were used as parts of words, such as “R34DING” instead of “READING”. Previous studies have suggested that LEET stimuli are encoded in a letter-like...
Lien, Ruthruff, and Johnston (2010) reported that the attentional control system is able to rapidly and fully switch between different search settings (e.g., red to green), with no carryover. The present study examined whether such impressive flexibility is possible even with more complicated switches, namely singleton search and the feature...
Some studies have found that responses are faster when the orientation of an object’s graspable part corresponds with the response location than when it does not (i.e., the object-based correspondence effect). We examined Goslin et al.’s (2012) claim that the effect is the result of object-based attention (visual-action binding). As...
Previous studies have suggested that negatively valenced faces (e.g., angry faces) automatically capture attention away from faces with other emotional valences (e.g., happy faces and neutral faces). The present study evaluated whether this attentional bias enhances memory of the negative emotional faces. Participants first performed a gender discrimination task on...
Previous studies have suggested that negatively valenced faces (e.g., angry faces) automatically capture attention away from faces with other emotional valences (e.g., happy faces and neutral faces). The present study evaluated two experiments with age-related differences: the first assessed recognition memory for pictures of faces and how it is modulated...