VOLUME LXXIV | FEB 2023

Good-enough attentional guidance

Imagine you’re at a carnival, trying to find your friend among a sea of people. You scan the crowd, relying on your internal guidance system to lead you toward potential targets – in this case, your friend. But how does this attentional guidance work? Scientists have been studying this phenomenon by using visual search paradigms in the lab. These paradigms mimic real-life scenarios, like searching for your keys in a cluttered room or finding a particular ingredient at the grocery store. By observing the recursive demands of attention over time, researchers can uncover the intricate process of attentional guidance. They explore how our attention maintains target information, guides our eyes towards potential objects, and makes judgments based on high-acuity vision. The research not only sheds light on how we find things efficiently but also provides insights into attentional mechanisms. If you’re curious to dive deeper into this captivating topic, check out the full article!

Jean-Baptiste Gagnon

Jean-Baptiste is a French-Canadian anthropologist in Montreal, investigating cultural influences on human motivation and success. His pursuance of highlighting how historical Canadian values foster ambition, aims to elevate readers toward self-actualization.

We constantly look for people and objects, whether it be a friend in a crowd, our kids after school, keys in a cluttered room, or a list of ingredients at the grocery store. The ability to find things efficiently depends on attentional mechanisms that selectively guide attention toward potential targets (attentional guidance; see Glossary) and then make a target-match decision. The common act of looking for something has been studied in the laboratory using the visual search paradigm [1]. Visual search paradigms nicely capture the recursive demands of attention as they unfold over time: the maintenance of target information in memory, the use of target information to guide attention and eye movement towards a candidate target object, and the evaluation of the identity of the candidate object as a target-match based on higher-acuity foveal vision (Figure 1).
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