A long-held belief is that human attention can be deployed voluntarily according to observers’ goals (top-down) or shifted automatically to the most salience object in the environment (bottom-up). Recent studies suggest a third category of attentional control: selection history. By this view, an observer’s experience in performing a task that requires the control of attention could automatically affect subsequent attention deployment in the task. This thesis examined selection history mechanisms of attentional control in two visual search phenomena. The first phenomenon is known as the Contextual Cueing Effect (CCE), and refers to an increased search efficiency when a specific distractor configuration is repeatedly associated with a specific target location (Chun and Jiang, 1998). In one study, we found a CCE when one repeated configuration was associated with up to four different target locations, suggesting that the CCE may involve mechanisms other than attentional guidance by one-to-one context-target associations. In another study, we found that the CCE was not affected by concurrent working memory load, and that there was little correlation between the magnitude of the CCE and working memory task performance when measured separately in the same participants. These results suggest that working memory may not be involved in such contextual learning. The second phenomenon is known as the the Item-Specific Proportion Congruent (ISPC) Effect, and refers to item-specific learning that controls the extent to which salient distractors capture attention. Through manual response and eye movement measures, we demonstrate that the ISPC effect reflects the search process itself, rather than processes that precede or follow search. We propose does item-specific learning produces transient changes in the activation of goal-related processes that mediate attention capture. / Thesis / Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) / Where we attend in visual space can be affected involuntarily by memories of how we have attended to visual space in the past. In other words, automatically retrieved memories can control our visual attention independent of volition. This thesis examines two visual search phenomena that display this type of memory-based control over attention. The first phenomenon reveals that search performance improves with experience searching through the same set of visual distractors on multiple occasions. We demonstrate that this form of learning is remarkably flexible; it can occur for multiple targets associated with the same set of distractors. We also demonstrate that this form of learning probably involves long-term rather than short-term memory mechanisms. The second phenomenon reveals how memory-based processes can prevent attention from being captured by a salient distractor. Eye movement data reveal that this form of learning impacts search itself, rather the processes that precede or follow search.

本文試圖將日程紀錄法的研究典範應用於憂鬱的心理病理研究，聚焦於兩研究問題：（一）探討個體的憂鬱症狀與其日常生活正/負向情感傾向的關係，以及該正/負向情感傾向如何影響其每日的正/負向想法；（二）根據「素質-壓力模式」的觀點，探討個體於日常生活中展現的情感傾向與認知特性，在控制住基準點的憂鬱症狀後，是否仍可顯著預測個體處於壓力狀態的憂鬱症狀。93名大學生完整參與本研究，問卷評估包括基準點的憂鬱症狀、日程紀錄期間的每日正/負向情感與正/負向想法、以及其期中考期間的憂鬱症狀。研究顯示憂鬱個體展現較低的正向情感傾向與較強的負向情感傾向，而個體的正/負向情感傾向與狀態可顯著預測其正/負向想法，且情感傾向與狀態對想法存在顯著的交互作用；另外，個體於日常生活展現的平均負向想法與正向情感傾向，在控制住基準點的症狀後，仍可顯著預測其處於壓力的憂鬱症狀。最後，我們則探討本研究對心理病理與治療的意涵。 / The authors attempted using diary method paradigm to study psychopathology of depression. The study focused on two questions: (1) explore the relationship between individuals’ depressive symptoms and their tendency of positive/ negative affect, and how the tendency of affect impact their daily positive/ negative thoughts; (2) according to the view of diathesis-stress model, explore how the affective tendency and cognitive characteristics exhibited in daily life could predict their depressive symptoms under stress after the initial symptoms are controlled. 93 participants finished all questionnaires, including initial depressive symptoms, daily positive/ negative affect, positive/ negative thoughts, and depressive symptoms under midterm examination. The results showed that depression is related to low positive affect and high negative affect. Individuals’ tendency and state of positive/ negative affect could predict their daily positive/ negative thoughts, and there exist a significant interaction effect between tendency and state to thoughts. Further, individuals’ tendency of positive affect and average negative could predict their depressive symptoms under stress after the initial symptoms are controlled. Finally, the implications for psychopathology and therapy are discussed.