The environment is abundant with visual information. Each moment, this information competes for representation in the brain. From billboards and pop-up ads to smart phones and flat screens, in modern society our attention is constantly drawn from one salient object to the next. Learning how to focus on the objects that are most important for the current task is a major developmental hurdle. Fortunately, rewards help us to learn what is important by providing feedback signals to the brain. Sometimes, in adolescence for example, reward seeking can become the pre-potent response. This can ultimately lead to risky and impulsive behaviors that have devastating consequences. Until recently, little has been known about how rewards operate to influence the focus of attention. In this document, I first demonstrate the robustness of various behavioral paradigms designed to measure reward processing in vision. I found that even mundane rewards, such as images of money, are effective enough to prime the attentional system on the basis of value. Remarkably, this effect extended to images of Monopoly money. This observation suggests that whole classes of visual stimuli, such as food, pornography, commercial logos, corporate brands, or money, each with its own reward salience value, are likely vying for representation in the brain. This work has implications for the growing digital economy as it suggests that novel value systems, such as the digital currency Bitcoin, could eventually become as psychologically relevant as physical currency provided sufficient use and exposure. Likewise, this work has implications for gamification in the industrial setting. Next, I examined the sensitivity of the system to make optimal economic decisions. When faced with an economic choice normative theories of decision-making suggest that the economic actor will choose the response that affords the greatest expected utility. Contrary to this account, I developed a new behavioral paradigm (reward contingent capture) and reveal that the attentional homunculus is a fuzzy mathematician. Specifically, I found that low-level attentional processes conform to the same probability distortions observed in prospect theory. This finding supports a unified value learning mechanism across several domains of cognition and converges with evidence from monkey models. Then, I demonstrate the influence of rewards on high-order search parameters. I found that images of money can implicitly encourage observers to preferentially adopt one of two search strategies – one that values salience versus one that values goals. Together, my results expose two distinct ways in which the very same rewards can affect attentional behavior – by tuning the salience of specific features and by shaping global search mode settings. Lastly, I draw from my empirical results to present a unified model of the manifold role of rewards on visual attention. This model makes clear predictions for clinical applications of rewarded attention paradigms because it incorporates a dimension of complexity upon which learning processes can operate on attention. Thus, future work should acknowledge how individual traits such as developmental trajectory, impulsivity, and risk-seeking factors differentially interact with low- and high-level attentional processes. In sum, this document puts forward the notion that rewards serve a compelling role in visual awareness. The key point however is not that rewards can have an effect on attention but that due to the nature of visual processing, reward signals are likely always tuning attention. In this way we can consider reward salience an attentional currency. This means then that deciding where to attend is a matter of gains and losses.

Both theoretical models and empirical evidence implicate the combined influences of high emotional reactivity and low emotional regulation to exacerbation in children's stuttering behavior (e.g., Conture, Walden, Arnold, Graham, Hartfiled, Karrass, 2006; Conture & Walden, 2012; Karrass et al., 2006). Attentional control is a key factor in both the development and implementation of emotional regulation (Bell & Calkins, 2012; Rueda, Posner, & Rothbart, 2004). The purpose of this study was to investigate attentional control along the distraction process in children who stutter using two event-related potential (ERP) experimental tasks: auditory-auditory distraction and visual search. Eight school-age children who stutter (CWS) and eight school-age children who do not stutter (CWNS) were recruited in this study. Using a Go/No Go paradigm, children in this study were asked to discriminate tone duration in the auditory-auditory distraction task and detect specific visual targets in the visual search task in both the auditory and visual tasks. Behavioral measures included reaction time (RT), hit rate (HR, accuracy) and false alarm (FA), while electrophysiological measures included the peak latency and mean amplitude of the mismatch negativity (MMN), P3a, N2pc and reorientation negativity (RON), and N2pc. Each ERP component reflects a specific stage along the distraction process: automatic scanning and change detection (MMN), involuntary orientation to deviants (P3a), attentional filtering (N2pc) and voluntary attentional reorientation (RON). The first three components are involved in the sensory/perceptual processing, while the last component is involved in the goal-directed processing (cognitive control for distraction compensation). These behavioral and ERP results were correlated with temperament data obtained from parent-report questionnaires. There were three main findings. First, CWS, but no CWNS, exhibited a P600 and increased peak latency of the late phase of RON (lRON). The P600 is elicited by violations in rule-governed sequences or the effect of encountering unexpected stimuli, while the lRON reflects evaluation of task-relevant information and motor preparation. The existence of P600 suggests that CWS return and re-evaluate deviants, perhaps due to reduced inhibitory control. As a result, CWS are delayed to start the attentional process reflected by lRON. Second, CWS exhibited a higher rate of false alarms in the auditory-auditory distraction task; this finding confirmed the notion of less efficiency in inhibitory control for CWS. Third, similar to previous research findings, our temperament data also revealed that CWS tended to exhibit relatively high negative affect in combination with relatively low effortful and attentional control, compared to their fluent peers. Taken together, present findings corroborate previous observations of relatively high emotional reactivity and relatively low efficiency in emotional regulation for CWS, including attentional and inhibitory control. Further, our results reveal that the low attentional control in CWS may result from less efficiency in the goal-directed processing for distraction compensation.

There is abundant evidence of anxiety-linked threat-biased attention and anxiety-linked threat-biased interpretation (cf. Mathews & MacLeod, 1994, 2005). The present research aimed to determine whether these cognitive biases reflect a single common underlying mechanism (the Common Mechanism Account) or multiple independent underlying mechanisms (the Independent Mechanisms Account). To address this question, a battery of eight experimental tasks was developed; four tasks measured attention bias and four measured interpretation bias. Participants with different levels of trait anxiety, completed pairs of these tasks. The pattern of associations amongst all eight tasks was compared with the pattern of associations between the four tasks that measured attention bias and the pattern of associations between the four tasks that measured interpretation bias. Both Accounts predicted strong associations between the four tasks that measured attention bias, and between the four tasks that measured interpretation bias. However, the Common Mechanism Account predicted generally strong associations between all of the eight tasks, that were equivalent in strength to the associations between tasks measuring attention bias and to the associations between tasks measuring interpretation bias. In contrast, the Independent Mechanisms Account predicted weaker associations between all of the eight tasks than the associations either between the tasks measuring attention bias or between the tasks measuring interpretation bias. The obtained pattern of associations between internally reliable measures of anxiety-linked attention bias and anxiety-linked interpretation bias failed to support the Common Mechanism Account, but rather was consistent with the predictions of the Independent Mechanisms Account. Theoretical and applied implications of the results are discussed.

[Truncated abstract] Socio-cultural processes are often cited as one of the main causes of body dissatisfaction amongst women. Numerous studies have found that exposure to thin, idealized images in the media increases women's body dissatisfaction. The central aims of this thesis are to investigate how exposure to thin and fat bodies alters womens perceptions of body normality and body ideals, whether body dissatisfaction is related to these changes, and whether body dissatisfaction is associated with an attentional bias toward thin bodies. In Chapter 1 I review the main theories dominating body dissatisfaction research. In Chapter 2 I present two studies which investigate how exposure to thin and fat bodies influences perceptions of body normality and ideal body size. Women who varied on a measure of body dissatisfaction (Experiment 1 & 2) and awareness and acceptance of societal standards of beauty (Experiment 2) rated a range of computer generated bodies, varying in simulated BMI, for how normal (Experiment 1 & 2) and ideal they looked (Experiment 2). They were then exposed to either thin or fat bodies, and they re-rated the bodies. Increased levels of body dissatisfaction and internalisation of societal standards of beauty were related to a thinner most normal and ideal rated body, before any exposure, as well as a greater discrepancy between the most normal and ideal rated bodies. Both Experiments 1 & 2 revealed that brief exposure to thin or fat bodies altered women's perceptions of body normality and body ideal, where exposure to fat bodies made womens perceptions of a normal and ideal body fatter, and exposure to thin bodies, made perceptions of the most normal and ideal rated body thinner. ... In Chapter 5 I present normative data for the Body Shape Questionnaire-34 (a measure of dissatisfaction with body weight and shape) (Cooper et al, 1987) from an Australian university sample. Many researchers use university samples iv when investigating body dissatisfaction, so it is useful to have normative data for such a sample. One thousand and fifty two women aged between 16 and 30 completed the BSQ-34. A mean score of 94.4 (SD = 34.5) was found, with a range of 34-203. My scores are comparable with those found in an American undergraduate sample, and are significantly higher than those found in community, undergraduate and clinical samples in the UK and Italy. Results indicate that levels of body dissatisfaction may be higher in Australia than in the UK and Italy. Together, these studies provide some important new findings. 1) Body dissatisfaction and internalisation of societal standards of beauty are related to thinner body norms and ideals. 2) Women's perceptions of normal and ideal female body sizes can be readily altered by exposure to thin and fat bodies, and 3) women selectively attend to thin bodies, but the more dissatisfied she is with her own body, the less she attends to thin bodies. Potential implications of these results for the treatment of body dissatisfaction may include the incorporation of treatment programs which target not only unnaturally slim body ideals, but perceptions of what constitutes a normal body, as well as trying to alter selective attention toward thin bodies in the environment. The results may also highlight to the media that consistently showing ultra slim models will very likely affect women's perceptions of normal and ideal female body sizes.

[Truncated abstract] It is well established that anxiety vulnerability is characterised by two biased patterns of selective information processing (Mathews & MacLeod, 1986; Mogg & Bradley, 1998). First anxiety is associated with an attentional bias, reflecting the selective allocation of attention to threatening stimuli in the environment (Mathews & MacLeod, 1985; MacLeod, Mathews & Tata, 1986; MacLeod & Cohen, 1993). Second anxiety is associated with an interpretive bias, reflecting a disproportionate tendency to resolve ambiguity in a threatening manner (Mogg et al., 1994). These characteristics are shown by normal individual high in trait anxiety (Mathews, Richards & Eysenck, 1989; Mogg, Bradley & Hallowell, 1994; Mathews & MacLeod, 1994), and by examining clinically anxious patients who repeatedly report elevated trait anxiety levels (MacLeod, Mathews & Tata, 1986; Mogg & Bradley, 1998). '...' Two alternative hypotheses regarding this relationship are proposed. One hypothesis is that attentional and interpretive biases are concurrent expressions of a single underlying biased selectivity mechanism that characterises anxiety vulnerability (the Common Mechanism account). In contrast, a quite different hypothesis is that attentional and interpretive biases are independent cognitive anomalies that represent separate pathways to anxiety vulnerability (the Independent Mechanisms account). The present research program was designed to empirically test the predictions that differentiate the Common Mechanism and Independent Mechanisms accounts. The general methodological approach that was adopted was to employ bias manipulation tasks from the literature that have been developed and validated to directly modify one class of processing bias (i.e. attentional bias or interpretive bias). The effect of these direct bias manipulation tasks on a measure of the same class of processing bias or the other class of processing bias was then examined. The Common Mechanism and Independent Mechanisms accounts of the relationship between attentional and interpretive bias generate differing predictions concerning the impact of directly manipulating one class of processing bias upon a measure of the other class of processing bias. The central difference between the alternate accounts is their predictions regarding cross-bias transfer, that is the transfer of training effects from direct manipulation of one class of processing bias to a measure of the other class of processing bias. Whereas the Common Mechanism account predicts that such cross-bias transfer will occur, the Independent Mechanisms account does not predict such transfer. A series of seven studies is reported in this thesis. There was some difficulty achieving successful bias modification using bias manipulation approaches established in the literature; however when such manipulation was achieved no cross-bias transfer was observed. Therefore the obtained pattern of results was consistent with the Independent Mechanisms (IM) account, and inconsistent with the Common Mechanism (CM) account. A more detailed version of the IM account is developed to more fully accommodate the specific results obtained in this thesis.

<p>When athletes and coaches discuss reasons for success or failure the word concentration has an important role. Likewise, in sport research, the term attention tends to have the same central position. This notion gives the impression that everyone seems to know what concentration is and how it affects sport performances. However, the many theories in cognitive psychology are not primarily designed to be applied in the setting of sport and exercise, and thus have little or no validity in that field. Instead of applying scientific knowledge, the field of sport enhancement often utilizes myths and folklore as bases for practice and exercise.</p><p>This thesis started as a quest for this well-known concentration and often required state of mind. The overarching purpose of this hunt was to discover aspects that influence the ability of concentration in sport and exercise settings. The aim was to examine the usefulness of cognitive psychology and scientific methods in the field of sports. The search for concentration has follows three tracks. The first line of investigation was to study variations in concentration. The second path was to validate the Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TAIS), (Nideffer, 1976). The third trail was to review the theory of ironic processing in mental control (Wegner, 1992) and try out its applications on sport performances movements.</p><p>The search of variations in concentration was carried out through interviewing and measuring heart rate of athletes from golf, pistol shooting, basketball, tennis, and handball. The results showed that the concentration vary within and between sports and athletes. The validation of TAIS was performed on a sample of 1230 athletes from different sports. The result confirms that the basic theory of TAIS not was adequate to explain the functions of attention on the basis of modern theories of cognition. TAIS did not manage to differentiate between different level of skills and between different sports. The original subscales of TAIS were not validated by a factor analysis. The application of ironic processing in sport settings was examined in a series of six studies. The result of these studies showed no support of any impact of ironic processing.</p><p>The overall conclusions of the quest for the covet concentration in sport settings can be summarized in one word, variation. It is difficult to consider the notion of general concentration in sports settings because of great differences within and between sports and individuals. These results cast doubt on the efficiency of universal concentration improving techniques. The review of theories of cognitive psychology showed that many modern theories are conspicuous by one's absence in the field of sport psychology. Perhaps the improvements in the sport arenas could be faster if the knowledge of cognitive psychology was better.</p>

When athletes and coaches discuss reasons for success or failure the word concentration has an important role. Likewise, in sport research, the term attention tends to have the same central position. This notion gives the impression that everyone seems to know what concentration is and how it affects sport performances. However, the many theories in cognitive psychology are not primarily designed to be applied in the setting of sport and exercise, and thus have little or no validity in that field. Instead of applying scientific knowledge, the field of sport enhancement often utilizes myths and folklore as bases for practice and exercise. This thesis started as a quest for this well-known concentration and often required state of mind. The overarching purpose of this hunt was to discover aspects that influence the ability of concentration in sport and exercise settings. The aim was to examine the usefulness of cognitive psychology and scientific methods in the field of sports. The search for concentration has follows three tracks. The first line of investigation was to study variations in concentration. The second path was to validate the Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TAIS), (Nideffer, 1976). The third trail was to review the theory of ironic processing in mental control (Wegner, 1992) and try out its applications on sport performances movements. The search of variations in concentration was carried out through interviewing and measuring heart rate of athletes from golf, pistol shooting, basketball, tennis, and handball. The results showed that the concentration vary within and between sports and athletes. The validation of TAIS was performed on a sample of 1230 athletes from different sports. The result confirms that the basic theory of TAIS not was adequate to explain the functions of attention on the basis of modern theories of cognition. TAIS did not manage to differentiate between different level of skills and between different sports. The original subscales of TAIS were not validated by a factor analysis. The application of ironic processing in sport settings was examined in a series of six studies. The result of these studies showed no support of any impact of ironic processing. The overall conclusions of the quest for the covet concentration in sport settings can be summarized in one word, variation. It is difficult to consider the notion of general concentration in sports settings because of great differences within and between sports and individuals. These results cast doubt on the efficiency of universal concentration improving techniques. The review of theories of cognitive psychology showed that many modern theories are conspicuous by one's absence in the field of sport psychology. Perhaps the improvements in the sport arenas could be faster if the knowledge of cognitive psychology was better.

Numerous studies have looked at cognitive processing, more specifically attention, and its important role in various dynamic and static movements. Research on attentional demands in sport is an expanding area with studies now being done on athletes revealing the role of cognitive factors in the execution of motor movements in sports. Objective: the purpose of this study was to determine the attentional demands of a delivery in curling using a classic probe technique with a verbal response time and by measuring numerous performance variables. Subjects: ten healthy skilled curling players and nine healthy novice curling players undertook an auditory probe reaction time concurrently with a delivery in curling. Method: Sixty shots were executed with ten shots for each of the three phases of the shot, in all 30 take outs and 30 draws were done by each participant. The first phase when the player comes out of the “hack”, the second phase of the throw was when the player slid across the “t-line”. The third phase is when the player arrives near the line of Hog and releases the stone. Results: results revealed that reaction times were longer at phase 1 of the delivery for all subjects. The attentional demands for the draw and take out were highest at the phase one of the delivery, furthermore, compared to the draw, a significant rise of RT was seen in phase 3 of the take out shot. Significant differences were also found between the two experimental groups, with the most notable ones being that expert had a better shot success and a slower delivery time than the novice group. Conclusion: These results will lead to a better understanding of the attentional demands of two key shots in the sport of Curling and help curling coaches and teachers, as well as the players of the sport to know more about the attentional demands of the execution movement of the sport. This study also opens a new and interesting perspective on the importance of attention while performing motor tasks that are more complex and demanding.

The efficiency of human visual information processing is supported by numerous attentional resources. These resources ensure that behaviourally relevant information within visual scenes is selected for detailed processing, while behaviourally irrelevant information is ignored. One of these attentional resources—reflexive visuospatial attention—operates by prioritising locations in visual space in response to the appearance of salient stimuli. The purpose of the present dissertation was to examine how this type of attention contributes to the efficiency of visual processing by asking: How is processing altered for information presented at the location of attention? To develop some initial evidence of the stage of processing affected by reflexive visuospatial attention, Chapters 1 to 6 assessed whether this attentional resource is related to four other stimulus-driven effects that are each associated with a specific stage of visual processing: identity processing, object filtering, visual working memory (VWM), and response generation. Based on the observation that only the stimulus-driven effects on VWM are related to reflexive visuospatial attention (i.e., only those effects were contingent on attentional control settings), a VWM model of reflexive visuospatial attention was proposed in Chapter 7, and tested in Chapters 8 to 11. According to this model, reflexive visuospatial attention alters visual processing by triggering VWM to update. Thus, the effect of reflexive visuospatial attention is to speed the encoding of attended information into VWM. As a result, this information is more likely than unattended information to bias our behaviour, in particular those behaviours that depend on VWM. Further, by biasing VWM, reflexive visuospatial attention can interact with other attentional resources that have also been associated with VWM. In this way, these attentional resources can coordinate in optimising the process of selection, thus, contributing to the efficiency of the human visual system.

The efficiency of human visual information processing is supported by numerous attentional resources. These resources ensure that behaviourally relevant information within visual scenes is selected for detailed processing, while behaviourally irrelevant information is ignored. One of these attentional resources—reflexive visuospatial attention—operates by prioritising locations in visual space in response to the appearance of salient stimuli. The purpose of the present dissertation was to examine how this type of attention contributes to the efficiency of visual processing by asking: How is processing altered for information presented at the location of attention? To develop some initial evidence of the stage of processing affected by reflexive visuospatial attention, Chapters 1 to 6 assessed whether this attentional resource is related to four other stimulus-driven effects that are each associated with a specific stage of visual processing: identity processing, object filtering, visual working memory (VWM), and response generation. Based on the observation that only the stimulus-driven effects on VWM are related to reflexive visuospatial attention (i.e., only those effects were contingent on attentional control settings), a VWM model of reflexive visuospatial attention was proposed in Chapter 7, and tested in Chapters 8 to 11. According to this model, reflexive visuospatial attention alters visual processing by triggering VWM to update. Thus, the effect of reflexive visuospatial attention is to speed the encoding of attended information into VWM. As a result, this information is more likely than unattended information to bias our behaviour, in particular those behaviours that depend on VWM. Further, by biasing VWM, reflexive visuospatial attention can interact with other attentional resources that have also been associated with VWM. In this way, these attentional resources can coordinate in optimising the process of selection, thus, contributing to the efficiency of the human visual system.