Paweł Augustynowicz

Determinants of attentive blank stares. An EFRP study.

Attentive blank stares mean a failure to notice changes in a visual scene, despite looking at the area of change (Caplovitz, Fendrich, & Hughes, 2008). In this research project we have shown that people differ in terms of attentive blank stare incidences. Novices tend to fail to notice changes in the target area more often than experts. This effect is greater in persons with low visual working memory capacity (VWMC) than with high VWMC. In addition, in a group of novices with low VWMC, attentive blank stares are more frequent compared to a group with high VWMC. Attentive blank stares did not disappear even after the high VWMC group were given expertise training. With the method of eye-fixation-related potentials (EFRP) we analyzed the amplitude of lambda response, which may reflect the state of the attentional system, during encoding information about a change, prior to a decision whether a change has occurred or not. We demonstrate that the cases of attentive blank stares are accompanied by significantly lower amplitude of the lambda response compared with cases involving change detection. In addition, we discovered greater lambda responses in a group with expertise who noticed the change than in novices. The EFRP record coming from occipital electrodes in the 80-180ms window function was marked by left-sided asymmetry in the cases of change detection and by right-sided asymmetry in the cases of attentive blank stares.

Short-Term Kinesthetic Training for Sensorimotor Rhythms: Effects in Experts and Amateurs

ABSTRACT The authors’ aim was to examine whether short-term kinesthetic training affects the level of sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) in different frequency band: alpha (8–12 Hz), lower beta (12.5–16 Hz) and beta (16.5–20 Hz) during the execution of a motor imagery task of closing and opening the right and the left hand by experts (jugglers, practicing similar exercises on an everyday basis) and amateurs (individuals not practicing any sports). It was found that the performance of short kinesthetic training increases the power of alpha rhythm when executing imagery tasks only in the group of amateurs. Therefore, kinesthetic training may be successfully used as a method increasing the vividness of motor imagery, for example, in tasks involving the control of brain–computer interfaces based on SMR.

Eye Movement Correlates of Expertise in Visual Arts

The aim of this study was to search for oculomotor correlates of expertise in visual arts, in particular with regard to paintings. Achieving this goal was possible by gathering data on eye movements of two groups of participants: experts and non-experts in visual arts who viewed and appreciated the aesthetics of paintings. In particular, we were interested in whether visual arts experts more accurately recognize a balanced composition in one of the two paintings being compared simultaneously, and whether people who correctly recognize harmonious paintings are characterized by a different visual scanning strategy than those who do not recognize them. For the purposes of this study, 25 paintings with an almost ideal balanced composition have been chosen. Some of these paintings are masterpieces of the world cultural heritage, and some of them are unknown. Using Photoshop, the artist developed three additional versions of each of these paintings, differing from the original in the degree of destruction of its harmonious composition: slight, moderate, or significant. The task of the participants was to look at all versions of the same painting in pairs (including the original) and decide which of them looked more pleasing. The study involved 23 experts in art, students of art history, art education or the Academy of Fine Arts, and 19 non-experts, students in the social sciences and the humanities. The experimental manipulation of comparing pairs of paintings, whose composition is at different levels of harmony, has proved to be an effective tool for differentiating people because of their ability to distinguish paintings with balanced composition from an unbalanced one. It turned out that this ability only partly coincides with expertise understood as the effect of education in the field of visual arts. We also found that the eye movements of people who more accurately appreciated paintings with balanced composition differ from those who more liked their altered versions due to dwell time, first and average fixation duration and number of fixations. The familiarity of paintings turned out to be the factor significantly affects both the aesthetic evaluation of paintings and eye movement.

Selective Attention and Working Memory Under Spatial Disorientation in a Flight Simulator

ABSTRACT Objective: The aim of this study was to test the effects of visual and vestibular spatial disorientation on the cognitive performance of military aviators while they were piloting a flight simulator. Background: Spatial disorientation (SD), the inability to correctly determine the position and orientation of the aircraft in relation to the ground, poses a serious threat in aviation and can impair the cognitive performance of pilots while flying. More evidence is needed on the effects of visual and vestibular SD on cognition in flight simulators. Method: Pilots performed an auditory selective attention (duration discrimination) task (Experiment 1, N = 16) or an auditory working memory (N-back) task (Experiment 2, N = 16) while completing 6 different flight profiles in the disorientation and control conditions in the GYRO-IPT flight simulator. The flight scenarios included 3 visual illusions (false horizon, shape constancy, size constancy) and 3 vestibular illusions (somatogyral illusion, Coriolis effect, the leans). Results: In both experiments the cognitive performance (task accuracy) decreased for flight profiles with the leans illusion. Also, the flight performance (measured as the number of control reversal errors) was worse for the false horizon illusion and for the somatogyral illusion in both experiments. Conclusion: The results suggest that SD, particularly the vestibular illusion of the leans, can impair selective attention and working memory processes.

The Effects of Motor Expertise on Sensorimotor Rhythm Desynchronization during Execution and Imagery of Sequential Movements

The purpose of the study was to investigate sensorimotor rhythm desynchronization during the performance of a motor execution and motor imagery task of different complexity, while varying motor musical expertise of subjects. We compared EEG patterns of professional pianists and non-pianists, who either executed or imagined finger tapping movements of different complexity. Results show that the power in alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (13-30 Hz) rhythms decreases with the complexity of both performed and imagined movements. Motor expertise influenced alpha rhythm desynchronization in the motor execution task - in the group of pianists there were differences in alpha power decrease depending on the complexity of the performed movement. There was no such relationship among non-pianists. In the imagery task, there was a tendency toward an interaction of motor expertise and low and high alpha rhythm components. In the beta band, there was an interaction of frequency and area of the skull occurring in the movement execution condition - high and low beta rhythm components had different topography.

Electrophysiological correlates of timbre imagery and perception

The primary objective of the present study was to verify whether the differences in imagined timbre are reflected by the event-related potentials (ERPs). It was verified the hypotheses that imagining of sounds, varying in spectral characteristics of timbre, influence the amplitude of the late positive component (LPC), associated with auditory imagery-related processes. It was also verified whether the manipulation of the perceived timbre corresponds to the amplitude fluctuations of the auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) N1 and P2. Also, it was expected that the amplitudes of the LPC, N1 and P2 components depend on musical expertise. Musicians and non-musicians took part in two experiments, each of which involved timbre manipulation in term of one parameter of the sound spectrum - spectral centroid or spectral irregularity. Each experiment consisted of auditory perception task followed by auditory imagery training and auditory imagery task. The present study showed that differences in perceived timbre associated with spectral centroid and spectral irregularity are reflected by fluctuations in the amplitude of the N1 and P2 potentials. Perceived differences in spectral centroid are sufficiently distinctive that generation of auditory images of sounds differing in this property induces changes in the amplitude of the late positive component (LPC), recorded during auditory imagery. This means that the LPC is sensitive to changes in the timbre of the imagined sound. Musicians are more accurate in performing auditory imagery task related to timbre than non-musicians. However, musical expertise does not affect the amplitude of the N1, P2 and LPC potentials.

The Effect of Art Expertise on Eye Fixation-Related Potentials During Aesthetic Judgment Task in Focal and Ambient Modes

This study aimed to determine the effect of expertise on the eye fixation-related potentials (EFRPs) during the aesthetic evaluation of images, independently in focal and ambient modes of visual processing. Focal and ambient modes were identified by averaging EFRP waveforms about the beginning of long eye fixations followed by short saccades and short fixations followed by long saccades, respectively. Thirty experts with formal training in visual arts and thirty-two non-experts freely viewed 150 figurative paintings presented for 20 s, each. After viewing the painting, the participant answered the question: “Is this painting beautiful?” Differences were found between the group of experts and non-experts due to the amplitude of EFRPs but only in focal mode, which is related to top-down, focused attention on the objects. Long fixations of experts had a higher amplitude of the parietal P2 recorded from right site than non-experts. In the group of experts, the frontal P2 was higher for long fixations on not beautiful paintings in comparison to long fixation on beautiful paintings. Moreover, in focal mode, there were higher occipital lambda response and N1-P2 complex for not beautiful than beautiful paintings. These results are discussed in the light of the results of studies on the effect of visual art expertise on event-related potentials (ERPs), ERP studies during aesthetic judgment task, and the knowledge of different modes of visual processing and EFRPs.

The Effects of Arousal and Approach Motivated Positive Affect on Cognitive Control. An ERP Study

A growing body of research has demonstrated that affect modulates cognitive control modes such as proactive and reactive control. Several studies have suggested that positive affect decreases proactive control compared to neutral affect. However, these studies only focused on the valence of affect and often omitted two of its components: arousal and approach motivation. Therefore, we designed the present study to test the hypothesis that cognitive control modes would differ as a function of arousal and approach motivated positive affect. In our study, we used an AX-continuous performance task (AX-CPT), commonly used to examine shifts in proactive and reactive control. We also measured P3b, contingent negative variation (CNV), N2 and P3a components of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) as indicators of the use of cognitive control modes. The findings of the present study demonstrated that approach motivated positive affect modified only the P3b and the CNV without effects on the N2 and P3a components. However, arousal induced by pictures modified P3b, CNV and N2 amplitudes. Specifically, the P3b amplitude was larger, and CNV amplitude was less negative in the high than in the low-approach motivated affect. In contrast, the P3b amplitude was larger and both the CNV and N2 amplitudes more negative in low- compared with high-arousal conditions. These ERP results suggest that approach motivated positive affect enhanced proactive control with no effect on reactive control. However, arousal influenced both proactive and reactive control. High arousal decreased proactive control and increased reactive control compared to low arousal. The present study provides novel insights into the relationship between affect, specifically, arousal and approach motivated positive affect and cognitive control modes. In addition, our results help to explain discrepancies found in previous research.

Automatic identification of experts in visual arts: The use of transitions between regions of interest in the image

The aim of this paper is to investigate the use of oculography signals for the recognition of experts in visual arts. We focused our attention on the number of sight transitions between characteristic image areas (ROIs). In the experiments we used oculographic data recorded at the Department of Experimental Psychology at the Catholic University of Lublin for 29 images and 34 users. The EM method was used to determine the ROIs, and the BIC criterion for determining the optimal number of clusters. The selected values of the matrix of transitions were used for learning and testing of the classifier. Very rigorous testing of the proposed algorithm was carried out approaching the actual operating conditions of the expert system. The presented results indicate that for some images there is a chance of identifying experts in the field of visual arts using transitions as oculographic features.