PAM Task 3 Attentional control
Learning goals:
1. What is Posner’s attention network model?
2. Can ANT show interaction between 3 types of attention tasks?
Methods of investigating attention
To measure attention: Chronometry of mind, together with application of the subtraction
method: reaction times from two experimental tasks are compared, with the only difference
between them being that one was proposed to require an additional cognitive process.
Training of attention
An important development of self-regulation in children occurs between the ages of 4 and 7
years. The executive attention network develops under strong genetic control but is amenable
to training. Before and after a 5 day training, researchers examined the children’s EEG in the
attention networks test (ANT), as well as their behavioural data, intelligence quotient (IQ) and
temperament measures. Findings indicate that even brief training shifts the attentional
networks of children towards a more adultlike pattern and there is an increasein IQ. Training
of working memory seems to improve the underlying neural networks.
Attentional networks
Cortical and subcortical networks work together and mediate different aspects of attention.
A three-network view. Posner developed an early influential model, which suggested that
attention has various neurological underpinnings, this model is refined along the way. Three
types of attention cooperate:
Alerting. To increase and maintain response readiness in preparation for an impending
stimulus and is a foundational form of attention on which other attentional functions rest. The
efficiency of alerting is generally measured by subtracting a cue condition that gives
temporal, but not location, information from a non-cue condition. Alerting tasks have replaced
vigilance tasks, in which performance is measured by accuracy decline and reaction-time
increase in the detection of small perceptual changes on a time scale of minutes or hours
(probably because of easy linking with imaging studies).
Two types: phasic alertness (task specific) and intrinsic alertness (a general cognitive control
of arousal). The relationship between alerting and arousal is complex.
Orienting. The ability to select specific information from among multiple sensory stimuli
(scanning or selection). Whether overt or covert (for example, with or without eye
movements), orienting has traditionally been measured by reductions in reaction time to a
target following a cue, which gives information on the location but not the timing of the
event. A distinction can be made between exogenous orienting (when the flash of a cue
automatically captures attention to a specific location) and endogenous orienting (when a
central arrow points to one of two lateralized target presentation locations). Guided paradigms
often present both valid and invalid cue trials, and reaction times in the valid condition are
subtracted from those in the invalid condition to yield an efficiency score. Both endogenous
(top-down) and exogenous (bottom-up) orienting enhance performance by influencing relative
increases in neural activity in a given sensory system. Although most research in orienting has
been carried out in the visual domain, neural activity increases in response to cue and
Learning goals:
1. What is Posner’s attention network model?
2. Can ANT show interaction between 3 types of attention tasks?
Methods of investigating attention
To measure attention: Chronometry of mind, together with application of the subtraction
method: reaction times from two experimental tasks are compared, with the only difference
between them being that one was proposed to require an additional cognitive process.
Training of attention
An important development of self-regulation in children occurs between the ages of 4 and 7
years. The executive attention network develops under strong genetic control but is amenable
to training. Before and after a 5 day training, researchers examined the children’s EEG in the
attention networks test (ANT), as well as their behavioural data, intelligence quotient (IQ) and
temperament measures. Findings indicate that even brief training shifts the attentional
networks of children towards a more adultlike pattern and there is an increasein IQ. Training
of working memory seems to improve the underlying neural networks.
Attentional networks
Cortical and subcortical networks work together and mediate different aspects of attention.
A three-network view. Posner developed an early influential model, which suggested that
attention has various neurological underpinnings, this model is refined along the way. Three
types of attention cooperate:
Alerting. To increase and maintain response readiness in preparation for an impending
stimulus and is a foundational form of attention on which other attentional functions rest. The
efficiency of alerting is generally measured by subtracting a cue condition that gives
temporal, but not location, information from a non-cue condition. Alerting tasks have replaced
vigilance tasks, in which performance is measured by accuracy decline and reaction-time
increase in the detection of small perceptual changes on a time scale of minutes or hours
(probably because of easy linking with imaging studies).
Two types: phasic alertness (task specific) and intrinsic alertness (a general cognitive control
of arousal). The relationship between alerting and arousal is complex.
Orienting. The ability to select specific information from among multiple sensory stimuli
(scanning or selection). Whether overt or covert (for example, with or without eye
movements), orienting has traditionally been measured by reductions in reaction time to a
target following a cue, which gives information on the location but not the timing of the
event. A distinction can be made between exogenous orienting (when the flash of a cue
automatically captures attention to a specific location) and endogenous orienting (when a
central arrow points to one of two lateralized target presentation locations). Guided paradigms
often present both valid and invalid cue trials, and reaction times in the valid condition are
subtracted from those in the invalid condition to yield an efficiency score. Both endogenous
(top-down) and exogenous (bottom-up) orienting enhance performance by influencing relative
increases in neural activity in a given sensory system. Although most research in orienting has
been carried out in the visual domain, neural activity increases in response to cue and
