Working memory (WM) is often described as a mental workspace where information can be maintained and manipulated in the service of ongoing cognition. Theoretical accounts describe the focus of attention as a state within working memory where a limited number of items can be briefly maintained in a heightened status of awareness. Ongoing debate and conflicting empirical evidence surrounds the capacity and characteristics of the focus of attention. Substantial recency effects are reported in a group of WM studies, and these recency effects are interpreted as a marker of the focus of attention (e.g., Nee & Jonides, 2008; Oztekin, Davachi, & McElree, 2010). The present work considers whether these findings are specific to parameters of these particular studies or whether they generalize across a broader range of tasks. An initial behavioral experiment tested performance across two tasks (judgment of recency and judgment of primacy), two information types (verbal and spatial), and two self-reported strategies (maintenance-based and retrieval-based). Central analyses averaged trials by the serial position of the correct item, and compared the accuracy and speed of retrieval of trials in different serial positions. Results showed evidence of both recency effects and primacy effects in all four types of task (verbal judgment of recency, verbal judgment of primacy, spatial judgment of recency, and spatial judgment of primacy). Moreover, a significant task by effect-type interaction showed that the size of recency and primacy effects shifted with the demands of the task (e.g., larger recency effects in judgment of recency than in judgment of primacy). Some similarities and some differences were found between verbal and spatial domains, while no differences were found across self-reported strategy. A subsequent fMRI experiment examined the neural correlates of verbal judgment of recency and primacy. Again, behavioral results showed a task by effect-type interaction where there was a larger recency effect in judgment of recency and a larger primacy effect in judgment of primacy. FMRI results showed no distinct correlates of a recency effect. In other words, , contrasts comparing fMRI signal during retrieval of recency item trials and middle item trials did not reveal above threshold clusters of activation. In contrast, neural correlates of primacy were found in frontal lobe brain regions (BA 4, 6, 32) associated with active maintenance of information. Moreover, the precise neural correlates of primacy were task-specific. In sum, two experiments demonstrate that the behavioral and neural signatures of WM, specifically related to primacy and recency effects, are dependent on task-demands. Accounts of the architecture of WM should address these observations, which inform how competing claims are supported across studies of WM. / Psychology

The central purpose of this dissertation is to develop and test a theoretical model of mind wandering in a technological setting by integrating the emerging work and theory on mind wandering—a shift of attention from the primary task to the processing of internal goals. This dissertation is intended to advance our understanding on the costs and benefits of mind wandering in information systems (IS) research and in turn, contribute to the literature of cognitive IS research. Understanding the consequences of mind wandering in a technological setting is imperative because mind wandering plays a vital role in influencing various outcomes associated with technology use and/or technology learning, such as technology anxiety, software self-efficacy, and task performance. This dissertation is composed of three essays which examine the determinants and consequences of mind wandering and focus of attention on a number of emotional and cognitive outcomes. A multi-method approach (i.e., online survey and laboratory experiment) across three essays is used to test the research models. Essay 1 focuses on developing the measurement items and estimating the impact of mind wandering on users' emotional outcomes (i.e., technology anxiety and users' satisfaction). Drawing upon the content regulation hypothesis of mind wandering, the content of thoughts are differentiated into two categories—technology-related thought (herein IT) and non-technology related thought (herein non-IT). The results show that whereas mind wandering (non-IT) is a major determinant of technology anxiety, focus of attention (IT) is the main predictor of users' satisfaction. Essay 2 focuses on the effect of mind wandering and focus of attention in the IS learning context. The study begins by exploring the hypotheses concerning the roles of executive functions (i.e., inhibition, switching, and working memory) and task complexity in influencing the occurrence of mind wandering and focus of attention, and in turn, cognitive outcomes (i.e., software self-efficacy and learning performance). Essay 2 integrates the use of psychological testing to measure executive functions and self-report to measure mind wandering and focus of attention. The interaction effects between mind wandering and focus of attention are also tested. The findings reveal that the costs and benefits of mind wandering in IS learning depend, in part, upon its content, whether it's technology-related or non-technology-related. Specifically, the results suggest that the congruence between the content of mind wandering experience and focus of attention determines the outcomes of such experience. Essay 3 examines the extent to which individuals' focus of attention and mind wandering influence IS decision making performance at different levels of task complexity. The research model is tested using a laboratory experiment in the context of B2C e-commerce. Drawing upon unconscious thought theory and executive control theory of mind wandering, the results show that under a low task complexity condition, focus of attention and mind wandering do not have any significant effects on performance accuracy. Under a medium task complexity condition, focus of attention leads to higher performance accuracy, but mind wandering does not have a significant effect on performance accuracy. However, under high task complexity, both focus of attention and mind wandering lead to higher performance accuracy. Mind wandering also negatively influences performance efficiency under all levels of IS task complexity.

There is general consensus that context can be a rich source of information about an object's identity, location and scale. In fact, the structure of many real-world scenes is governed by strong configurational rules akin to those that apply to a single object. Here we introduce a simple probabilistic framework for modeling the relationship between context and object properties based on the correlation between the statistics of low-level features across the entire scene and the objects that it contains. The resulting scheme serves as an effective procedure for object priming, context driven focus of attention and automatic scale-selection on real-world scenes.

It is now well understood that skilled motor behavior is affected by performers' focus of attention. This effect has been demonstrated in numerous and varied motor tasks, from golf-putting to piano playing. I conducted two experiments with college-aged singers to test the extent to which trained singers' vocal tone is affected by their focus of attention while singing. In Experiment 1 (N = 11) participants sang a 3-note sequence and an excerpt of a well-learned melody under six different focus conditions. In Experiment 2 (N = 20) participants sang 3-note sequences in both high and low vocal registers, a well-learned melody, and an unpracticed, familiar melody under seven different focus conditions. Focus of attention affected participants' vocal tone in all of the singing tasks. The results of the two experiments are consistent with the results of related investigations of attentional focus in motor skill performance. Singers' tone was rated most highly and described most positively by expert listeners when singers' focused their attention on external rather than internal targets. Focusing on distal targets (i.e., targets that were far removed from the vocal mechanism) in particular was associated with high ratings and positive descriptions of vocal tone. / text

Utilization of an external focus of attention has been proved to be beneficial in the motor learning literature. When people focus on the effects of the movement (i.e., external focus of attention), the motor skill is enhanced compared to directing attention to the body movements (i.e., internal focus of attention). Previous studies that have examined the effect of focus of attention on learning a motor skill often used visible or imagined objects to elicit an external focus of attention. However, the effects of these different types of external focus instruction have not been investigated thoroughly. It was unclear prior to this thesis how the focus of attention effect is influenced by the use of imagery. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the difference between directing attention to a visible object and an imagined object when performing and learning the standing long jump. It was hypothesized the group of participants who practiced with an imagery instruction would perform similarly in the post-test with or without an object that was used to elicit an external focus of attention. It was also hypothesized the group of participants who practiced with a visible object would perform similarly during the post-test with the same visible object; but the performance would decline in the post-test with no object. The results indicated there was no difference in the effect of the two different types of instructions. That is, performance during the practice and post-test were similar for the participants who imagined an object during the practice phase compared to the participants who practiced with an object. The post-test with and without an object were also similar within the same group as well as between the two groups. The results of the study provided additional evidence vision does not influence the focus of attention effect. Participants that practiced the standing long jump with a visible cone did not change the performance on the transfer test when the cone was removed. Also, participants that were instructed to direct their attention toward an imaginary cone performed just as well as participants that focused their attention on a visible cone on both the retention and transfer test. Therefore, the primary finding of the present experiment is that the focus of attention effect can be induced through the use of imagery.

Idosos tendem a direcionar a atenção para o movimento do próprio corpo, realizando o controle online do movimento, que tem sido associado com a ativação ineficaz do sistema muscular, e a inibição de processos automáticos eficientes de controle (CHIVIACOWSKY, WULF e WALLY, 2010). O foco de atenção vem sendo apresentado como um dos quatro fatores mais influentes na aprendizagem motora, sendo o foco de atenção externo capaz de promover desempenho qualitativamente superior e acelerar a aprendizagem, pela possibilidade da adoção de padrões mais automáticos de controle, utilizando menos processamento consciente (WULF, SHEA E LEWTHWAITE, 2010). Por outro lado, há evidências de que a instrução do foco externo de atenção não influencia por si o modo de controle do movimento e que as vantagens na adoção do foco são dependentes do nível de habilidade do executante e do volume de instrução fornecido. Nesse sentido, o objetivo deste trabalho foi examinar se a adoção do foco de atenção, interno (FI) e externo (FE), influencia na aprendizagem de uma habilidade motora por idosos. Foram analisados dois grupos de vinte idosos com idade entre 60 e 75 anos, na tarefa de arremesso de dardo de salão. Os resultados mostraram que, embora os dois grupos tenham melhorado o desempenho com a prática e tenham sido capazes de aprender, o grupo FE demonstrou discreta vantagem nos estágios iniciais de aprendizagem. Apesar disso, também foram encontrados indícios de que as instruções quando relembradas podem ter retirado FE do controle automático, causando queda de desempenho. Considerando que as diferenças de desempenho encontradas no início do processo de aprendizagem não se mantiveram, particularmente, no teste de retenção da habilidade, não é possível aceitar a hipótese de que o foco externo seja favorável na aprendizagem do arremesso de dardos por idosos. / Elderly tend to direct attention toward to their body movements in an online movement control mode, which it has been associated with a not efficient muscle system activation, and an inhibition of an effective automatic process of control (CHIVIACOWSKY, WULF e WALLY, 2010). Focus of attention has been presented as one of the four main factors affecting motor learning. It seems that external focus of attention can promote qualitative superior performance and speed up learning by adopting automatic patterns of control, using less conscious processing (WULF, SHEA E LEWTHWAITE, 2010). In the other hand, there are some evidences that the external focus of attention only does not affect movement control mode and the advantages on the focus adoption are dependent on the learner skill level and also on the given instruction volume. In this sense, the objective of this study was to examine whether the adoption of a focus of attention, internal (FI) and external (FE), affect the learning of a motor skill in old age. Two groups with 20 individuals between 60 and 75 years old were analyzed on the darts throwing toward a static target. Results showed that although the two groups have improved performance with practice and were able to learn, FE group showed discrete advantage in the learning initials stages. Despite of that, there was also some indicatives that when instructions are repeated it can take FE off of the automatic control, which causes performance decrease. Considering that the performance differences found in the beginning of learning did not maintain, particularly, in the retention test, it is not possible to accept the hypothesis that the external focus is favorable in the darts throwing learning in old age

Idosos tendem a direcionar a atenção para o movimento do próprio corpo, realizando o controle online do movimento, que tem sido associado com a ativação ineficaz do sistema muscular, e a inibição de processos automáticos eficientes de controle (CHIVIACOWSKY, WULF e WALLY, 2010). O foco de atenção vem sendo apresentado como um dos quatro fatores mais influentes na aprendizagem motora, sendo o foco de atenção externo capaz de promover desempenho qualitativamente superior e acelerar a aprendizagem, pela possibilidade da adoção de padrões mais automáticos de controle, utilizando menos processamento consciente (WULF, SHEA E LEWTHWAITE, 2010). Por outro lado, há evidências de que a instrução do foco externo de atenção não influencia por si o modo de controle do movimento e que as vantagens na adoção do foco são dependentes do nível de habilidade do executante e do volume de instrução fornecido. Nesse sentido, o objetivo deste trabalho foi examinar se a adoção do foco de atenção, interno (FI) e externo (FE), influencia na aprendizagem de uma habilidade motora por idosos. Foram analisados dois grupos de vinte idosos com idade entre 60 e 75 anos, na tarefa de arremesso de dardo de salão. Os resultados mostraram que, embora os dois grupos tenham melhorado o desempenho com a prática e tenham sido capazes de aprender, o grupo FE demonstrou discreta vantagem nos estágios iniciais de aprendizagem. Apesar disso, também foram encontrados indícios de que as instruções quando relembradas podem ter retirado FE do controle automático, causando queda de desempenho. Considerando que as diferenças de desempenho encontradas no início do processo de aprendizagem não se mantiveram, particularmente, no teste de retenção da habilidade, não é possível aceitar a hipótese de que o foco externo seja favorável na aprendizagem do arremesso de dardos por idosos. / Elderly tend to direct attention toward to their body movements in an online movement control mode, which it has been associated with a not efficient muscle system activation, and an inhibition of an effective automatic process of control (CHIVIACOWSKY, WULF e WALLY, 2010). Focus of attention has been presented as one of the four main factors affecting motor learning. It seems that external focus of attention can promote qualitative superior performance and speed up learning by adopting automatic patterns of control, using less conscious processing (WULF, SHEA E LEWTHWAITE, 2010). In the other hand, there are some evidences that the external focus of attention only does not affect movement control mode and the advantages on the focus adoption are dependent on the learner skill level and also on the given instruction volume. In this sense, the objective of this study was to examine whether the adoption of a focus of attention, internal (FI) and external (FE), affect the learning of a motor skill in old age. Two groups with 20 individuals between 60 and 75 years old were analyzed on the darts throwing toward a static target. Results showed that although the two groups have improved performance with practice and were able to learn, FE group showed discrete advantage in the learning initials stages. Despite of that, there was also some indicatives that when instructions are repeated it can take FE off of the automatic control, which causes performance decrease. Considering that the performance differences found in the beginning of learning did not maintain, particularly, in the retention test, it is not possible to accept the hypothesis that the external focus is favorable in the darts throwing learning in old age

<p>A major feature of the human eye is the compressed sensitiveness of the retina. An image coder, which makes use of this, can heavily encode the parts of the image which is not close to the focus of our eyes. Existing image coding schemes require that the gaze direction of the viewer is measured. However, a great advantage would be if an estimator predicts the focus of attention (FOA) regions in the image. </p><p>This report presents such an implementation, which is based on a model that mimics many of the biological features of the human visual system (HVS). For example, it uses a center-surround mechanism, which is a replica of the receptive fields of the neurons in the HVS. </p><p>An extra feature of the implementation is the extension to handle video sequences, and the expansion of the FOA:s. The test results of the system show good results from a large variety of images.</p>

A major feature of the human eye is the compressed sensitiveness of the retina. An image coder, which makes use of this, can heavily encode the parts of the image which is not close to the focus of our eyes. Existing image coding schemes require that the gaze direction of the viewer is measured. However, a great advantage would be if an estimator predicts the focus of attention (FOA) regions in the image. This report presents such an implementation, which is based on a model that mimics many of the biological features of the human visual system (HVS). For example, it uses a center-surround mechanism, which is a replica of the receptive fields of the neurons in the HVS. An extra feature of the implementation is the extension to handle video sequences, and the expansion of the FOA:s. The test results of the system show good results from a large variety of images.

Although public speaking anxiety is one of the most commonly reported causes of both clinical and non-clinical anxiety, many of the currently used questionnaire measures of public speaking anxiety do not reflect the advances made in recent decades regarding empirical methods of test construction, including item generation and determination of subscale composition. The current study administered 35 empirically-generated cognitive self-statement items related to speaking anxiety to a sample of 367 undergraduate students along with measures of public speaking anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, generalized social anxiety behaviors, and self-consciousness tendencies. Using exploratory factor analysis and item-total correlations, participant responses to the 35 self-statement items were examined, producing the 30-item Speaking Cognitions and Attention Scale (SCAS). Data indicated that in the current sample the SCAS displayed a three-factor solution, with factors composed of items reflecting positive self-statements, negative self-statements, and catastrophic self-statements. The scale also demonstrated excellent internal reliability, with alphas in the range of .90 to .97. Discriminant validity analyses supported the specificity of the measure in measuring public speaking anxiety by correlating highly with another measure of speaking anxiety, at a moderate level with measures of general social anxiety, and at a small level with a measure of self-consciousness with no theoretical relationship to speaking anxiety. Results are discussed with respect to implications of the current findings for questionnaire measurement of public speaking anxiety, needed future directions in further validation of the measure, and potential applications for treatment of public speaking anxiety.