Professor Kristen Pammer

Purpose: Previous research has shown that paramedics form intuitive impressions based on limited ¿pre-arrival¿ dispatch information and this subsequently affects their diagnosis. However, this observation has never been experimentally studied. Design/methodology/approach: This was an experimental study of 83 Australian undergraduate paramedics and 65 Australian paramedics with median 14¿years' experience (Range: 1¿32¿years). Participants responded to written vignettes in two parts that aimed to induce an intuitive impression by placing participants under time pressure and with a secondary task, followed by a diagnosis made without distraction or time pressure. The vignettes varied the likelihood of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) and measured self-reports of typicality and confidence. Answer fluency, which is the ease with which the answer comes to mind, was also measured. Findings: More participants exposed to the likely pre-arrival vignette recorded a final diagnosis of ACS, than those exposed to unlikely pre-arrival information (0.85 [95%CI: 0.78, 0.90] vs 0.74 [95%CI: 0.66, 0.81]; p¿=¿0.03). This effect was greater in paramedics with more than 14¿years' experience (0.94 [95%CI: 0.78, 0.99] vs 0.67 [95%CI: 0.48, 0.81]; p¿=¿0.01). Answer fluency and confidence were associated with the impression, while the impression and confidence were associated with final diagnosis. Practical implications: The authors have experimentally shown that pre-arrival information can affect subsequent diagnosis. The most experienced paramedics were more likely to be affected. Originality/value: This is the first experimental study of diagnostic decision-making in paramedics and paramedic students.

Introduction: We report an experiment using Australian paramedics (n = 64) and Australian paramedicine undergraduates (n = 44), on the processes underlying the formation of an intuitive diagnostic impression, based on limited dispatch information. Previous research has signalled roles for objective likelihood of the disease, subjective typicality of the disease, and the ease with which the diagnosis comes to mind (answer fluency) as important in impression formation. Method: Participants completed four brief written clinical vignettes under time pressure and with a concurrent navigation task to simulate conditions faced by paramedics prior to meeting a patient. Diagnostic impression, confidence and subjective typicality of the vignette were self-reported while answer fluency was measured. The vignettes varied the objective likelihood of a diagnosis of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS), a condition often encountered by paramedics. Results: Likelihood, answer fluency, self-reported typicality and confidence predicted the impression but there was no effect of experience. Students and experienced paramedics had comparable accuracy and performance. Conclusion: The results support a role for answer fluency and confidence in forming that impression. We have shown it is possible to experimentally manipulate various factors associated with paramedic diagnostic impressions. These experimental methods can form the basis for additional studies into paramedic decision making.

Road users and the general population by and large recognise the value of vehicles with automated driving systems and features (otherwise typically known as Autonomous Vehicles (AVs)) in terms of road safety, reduced emissions and convenience, but are still wary of their capability, preferring the ¿comfort zone¿ of human operator intervention. Motorcyclists and cyclists conversely, are vulnerable to human fallibility in driving, with the majority of crashes occurring as a consequence of other drivers¿ inattention. The transition period associated with the introduction of AVs will require AVs and motorcyclists/cyclists sharing the road for a number of years yet, so we need to understand motorcyclists¿/cyclists¿ perception of AVs. The question of interest here is whether motorcyclists/cyclists reflect the historical literature in this area by having higher levels of trust for human drivers over AVs, or whether they have higher levels of trust in AVs because it removes the ¿human element¿ that has been proven to be particularly dangerous for them. Here we surveyed motorcyclists and cyclists about their trust in human drivers and AVs, and developed a novel suite of questions designed to interrogate the difference between trust in general versus trust as a concept of their own personal safety. Some of the salient outcomes suggest that motorcyclists have medium to low levels of trust for both human drivers and AVs, but are significantly more likely to believe that AVs are safer in terms of their own personal safety, such as prioritising or detecting the rider, compared to human drivers. This relationship varies with age and crash experience. The results here are consistent with the logic that motorcyclists/cyclists have a heightened sense of vulnerability on the road and welcome the introduction of AVs as a way of mitigating personal risk when riding. This insight will be crucial to the subsequent roll-out of AVs in the future.

Situation awareness (SA) is knowing what is going on in the environment: identifying objects, understanding how they interact and predicting future events. It is important in the context of driving as it is related to hazard perception. Driving-related SA may help explain expert drivers¿ superior driving skill, but it is important to understand whether this is because expert drivers have better memory for driving-related tasks, whether superior memory performance is task specific, and the degree to which any effect is attributable to experience vs. expertise. On-road paramedics were compared with non-expert drivers. The participants engaged in an SA driving task where they were required to describe a vide taped driving situation after the screen cut to black. We measured their SA, memory and demographic driving variables. The starting SA of World, Action and Schema was re-developed to better reflect driving SA, into World, Action, Other-Agent Action, Projection, and Rationale. Driving expertise predicted each category of SA, except the Action category, independently of other experience variables. Similarly, expertise also predicted SA categories independently of any of the memory tasks. We concluded that expert drivers have better driving-SA than non-expert drivers and this is not due to better memory for driving tasks, or ¿time-on-road¿. This finding is important in driver training because if we can harness the SA skills that expert drivers demonstrate, we could potentially implement them in better driver training programs.

Social and cultural barriers associated with inequitable access to driver licensing and associated road safety education, as well as socioeconomic issues that preclude ongoing vehicle maintenance and registration, result in unsafe in-car behaviours such as passenger overcrowding. This in turn is associated with improper seatbelt usage, noncompliance with child restraint man-dates, and driver distraction. For example, in Australia, where seatbelt use is mandatory, Indigenous road users are three times less likely to wear seatbelts than non-Indigenous road users. This is associated with a disproportionately high fatality rate for Indigenous drivers and passengers; 21% of Indigenous motor-vehicle occupants killed on Australian roads were not wearing a seatbelt at the time of impact. In addition, inequitable access to driver licensing instruction due to financial and cultural barriers results in Indigenous learner drivers having limited access to qualified mentors and instructors. A consequent lack of road safety instruction results in a normalising of risky driving behaviours, perpetuated through successive generations of drivers. Moreover, culturally biased driver instruction manuals, which are contextualised within an English written-language learning framework, fail to accommodate the learning needs of Indigenous peoples who may encounter dif-ficulties with English literacy. This results in difficulty understanding the fundamental road rules, which in turn makes it difficult for young drivers to develop and sustain safe in-car behaviours. This paper considers the literature regarding road safety for Indigenous road users and critically evaluates strategies and policies that have been advanced to protect Indigenous drivers. Novel so-lutions to increasing road safety rule compliance are proposed, particularly in relation to passenger safety, which are uniquely embedded within Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing. Safe driving practices have crucial health and social implications for Indigenous communities by allow-ing more Indigenous people to participate in work and education opportunities, access healthcare, maintain cultural commitments, and engage with families and friends, qualities which are essential for ongoing health and wellbeing.

Sharing the road with trucks is associated with increased risk of serious injury and death for passenger vehicle drivers. However, the onus for minimising risk lies not just with truck drivers; other drivers must understand the unique performance limitations of trucks associated with stop-ping distances, blind spots, and turning manoeuverability, so they can suitably act and react around trucks. Given the paucity of research aimed at understanding the specific crash risk vulnerability of young drivers around trucks, the authors employ a narrative review methodology that brings to-gether evidence from both truck and young driver road safety research domains, as well as data regarding known crash risks for each driving cohort, to gain a comprehensive understanding of what young drivers are likely to know about heavy vehicle performance limitations, where there may be gaps in their understanding, and how this could potentially increase crash risk. We then review literature regarding the human factors affecting young drivers to understand how percep-tual immaturity and engagement in risky driving behaviours are likely to compound risk regarding both the frequency and severity of collision between trucks and young drivers. Finally, we review current targeted educational initiatives and suggest that simply raising awareness of truck limitations is insufficient. We propose that further research is needed to ensure initiatives aimed at increasing young driver awareness of trucks and truck safety are evidence-based, undergo rigorous evaluation, and are delivered in a way that aims to (i) increase young driver risk perception skills, and (ii) reduce risky driving behaviour around trucks.

Contemporary neurocognitive models implicate alpha oscillations as a top-down mechanism of cortical inhibition, instrumental in the suppression of information that fails to reach conscious visual awareness. This suggests that alpha-band activity may play a key role in the phenomenon of inattentional blindness, however this has not yet been empirically examined. The current study employed transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) over occipital cortex at alpha, theta, and sham frequencies within an inattentional blindness task to delineate whether an exogenous manipulation of alpha oscillations has a modulatory effect on visual awareness of the unexpected stimulus. Results revealed that compared to theta and sham, those exposed to alpha tACS were more likely to be inattentionally blind to the unexpected stimulus. Findings extend current theoretical views of alpha by suggesting inattentional blindness may be explained as a suppression of irrelevant information via alpha-band.

Some individuals with dyslexia demonstrate deficits in reading, visual attention, and visual processing which can be attributed to a functional failure of the magnocells in the visual system or in the dorsal visual pathway. The study examines the role of magno/dorsal function in dyslexic adults compared with normal, illiterate, and semi-literate readers. Coherent motion and coherent form were used in Experiment 1, and the frequency doubling illusion and static-gratings were used in Experiment 2. If a magno/dorsal deficit is demonstrated for dyslexic readers but not illiterate, semi-literate, and normal reading adults, then the deficit cannot be attributed to reading experience. Illiterate adults performed the same as normal and semi-literate readers in coherent motion and frequency doubling tasks, and all three groups performed better than the dyslexic readers. There was no difference between any of the groups in the coherent form or static grating tasks. Together, these studies show that illiterate and semi-literate adults do not demonstrate a magno/dorsal deficit that is a characteristic of some sufferers of dyslexia. Therefore, magno/dorsal deficits in dyslexia are unlikely to be a consequence of failing to learn to read but rather provides evidence to suggest a causal role for reduced visual magno/dorsal processing.

Successful academic progression relies on a child¿s ability to develop proficient reading skills. In Australia, the majority of children achieve this milestone during elementary schooling. Yet Australian Indigenous children, particularly those living in remote and rural regions of Australia, consistently struggle to meet national benchmarks for reading, as evidenced by national benchmark data. There has been extensive debate about whether sociocultural factors impinge on academic achievement for Indigenous Australians, but little discussion regarding the possible role of neurocognitive factors. In this review, we consider limited available research on neurocognitive mechanisms associated with reading for Indigenous populations and argue for an urgent need to consider the relationship between neurocognitive and sociocultural development when examining reading acquisition outcomes for this population. We also discuss the plausibility of targeting the potential neurocognitive strengths of certain Indigenous populations to scaffold reading acquisition and identify opportunities for furthering this line of research.

Evidence suggests a link between deficits in visuo-spatial attention, and subsequent reading ability. However, all the research in the area thus far has been conducted using traditional, lab-based psychophysics, with very tightly controlled visual parameters. In order to take this research further, such as using visuo-spatial tasks for remediation purposes, it must be established that such tasks can be taken out of the laboratory, ¿gamified¿, and still predict reading ability. This study aimed to determine if subtle visual deficits in poor readers could be detected outside a traditional laboratory, in relatively uncontrolled settings using portable game-like technology. Classic visual search and change detection programs, thought to rely on the visual dorsal stream, were modified to a game-like format. They were administered on a portable computer tablet within the participants¿ school setting. Whilst IQ predicted reading rate, visuo-spatial tasks such as visual search speed, and change detection, each accounted for unique variance in reading rate over and above IQ, age and phonological ability. These results are consistent with the visuo¿spatial attention deficit hypothesis, and provide support for the development of portable computerised games that may assess and potentially target this deficit in poor readers.

The aim of this study is to measure some visuo-cognitive mechanisms of expert drivers, and compare them to experienced, competent and novice drivers as a way of gaining an understanding of how expert drivers might differ from non-expert drivers. Instead of driving-related stimuli, we used non-driving visual and cognitive tasks that theoretically should underlie good driving skills, such as scanning the environment for targets, tracking multiple objects, identifying unexpected objects and tendency towards intrusive thought patterns. This design should minimise the influence of top-down factors such as familiarity, allowing us to focus more on stimulus-driven influences. We demonstrated that expert drivers performed better than non-expert, novice and young-competent drivers in tasks designed to reflect on-task performance such as continuous performance and task-intrusive-thoughts. However, in visual search, noticing the unexpected object in Inattentional Blindness (IB), and multiple object tracking in IB, expert drivers were the same as the two younger driver groups. The results suggest that ¿ in driving at least ¿ expertise is qualitatively different from experience, and driving expertise may be partially derived from superior skill in underlying core visuo-cognitive constructs. This finding is important for understanding driver training programs, but also in understanding the ¿backward transference¿ of expertise to underlying cognitive-perceptual networks.

Safe driving is predicated on a driver's ability to prioritise scene information to segregate hazards and potential hazards from other information, and allocate attention accordingly. Previous research has demonstrated that expert drivers are superior at detecting potential hazards when compared with non-expert drivers. However, hazard perception is a multi-faceted skill involving at least three components: drivers must look at the hazard, then detect it, and finally appraise it and respond appropriately. In the current study, we explored how expert drivers (paramedics, n = 151) and non-expert drivers (n = 189) detect hazards of different threat value. To explore this question, we used a static, driving-related inattentional blindness (IB) task, in which an unexpected object in a critical trial varied from high threat (child running onto the road) to medium threat (pedestrian standing by the road) to low threat (garbage bin next to the road). We hypothesised that experts would have heightened awareness of hazards, which could be reflected as either generally higher rates of noticing objects in the driving scene (lower IB overall), or a heightened ability to prioritise the threat value of objects in the scene (lower IB for high threat, but not low threat objects). The results demonstrated that approx. 90% of drivers, irrespective of expertise, detected high threat objects placed on the side of the road. However, experts were more likely than non-experts to detect medium threat objects (55% of expert drivers vs. 40% of non-expert drivers), whereas the opposite pattern occurred for low threat objects (almost 20% of non-expert drivers noticed low-threat objects, compared with none of the expert drivers). We argue that expertise allows drivers to calibrate a hierarchy of attentional filtering to not only direct attentional resources to locations of interest, but also to explicitly prioritise objects of interest when driving. Importantly, this appears to be due to training rather than years of experience. These results point to the importance of not just increasing awareness while driving, but to develop discriminative capacity to filter out what is unimportant to facilitate safe driving.

Sketch mapping has been an important data collection technique for geographers since the 1960s. Structured sketch mapping requires participants to draw spatial data onto a base map containing cartographic information, in order to assist with spatial referencing. A concern that base map characteristics may influence sketch map content has been raised repeatedly in the research literature. However little scholarly attention has been paid to systematically testing the effect of base maps.This paper aims to test the effects of base map size and imagery on structured sketch maps of avoidance behaviour in university students. Using an experimental design, 272 sketch maps were compared for differences in: sketch map style; the location of collective avoidance hotspots; the extent of the reported area avoided; the number of reported areas avoided; the intensity of avoidance; and the tortuosity of sketch map features.No significant differences were found between base maps in sketch map style or the size, intensity or number of areas avoided. Provision of larger base maps caused respondents to draw more detailed sketch maps. Collective avoidance hotspots shifted location slightly between base maps, probably due to difficulties interpreting aerial photographs.Sketch map content appears to be remarkably robust to changes in base map. Base maps appear to assist respondents with spatial referencing rather than cueing respondents to report specific features.

Explaining how we attend to some objects and not others in real world environments remains a challenge for theories of attention. Driving is an ideal example of this, as it requires a complex synthesis of attentional processing, while still allowing attention to be captured by hazards. In the current study we employed a static inattentional blindness (IB) driving task in which participants were required to make decisions about the content of driving-related scenarios. In a critical trial, an additional stimulus was added to the driving scenario. All unexpected stimuli were thematically consistent with a normal driving environment but varied in their level of hazard threat. Rates of IB were consistent with the level of hazard threat of the stimuli. The results are discussed in terms of semantic-based attentional capture in driving, and models of IB.

Distraction is typically thought to be detrimental to performance and concentration, and stimuli are classified as ¿distractions¿ if they take attention away from a primary task. However it has been shown that, under certain circumstances, distractors can also improve task performance. The current study extends this literature by exploring the role of a single discrete transient visual distracting event in increasing attention to an unexpected visual object in an inattentional blindness (IB) paradigm. Experiment 1 investigated the impact of a 48 ms visual distraction stimulus on rates of IB; a second experiment used a shortened, 16 ms visual distracting event. Both the long 48 ms and brief 16 ms distractors significantly reduced overall IB rates, by approximately 50% compared to a no distractor condition. Moreover, this reduction in IB is obtained independent of whether the visual distracting event was noted by the observer. Our findings demonstrate that a single discrete visual distraction can improve the detectability of an unexpected object in an IB task. Implications for theories of distributed attention in such tasks are discussed.

The cognitive processing similarities between music and language is an emerging field of study, with research finding evidence for shared processing pathways in the brain, especially in relation to syntax. This research combines theory from the shared syntactic integration resource hypothesis (SSIRH; Patel, 2008) and syntactic working memory (SWM) theory (Kljajevic, 2010), and suggests there will be shared processing costs when music and language concurrently access SWM. To examine this, word lists and complex sentences were paired with three music conditions: normal; syntactic manipulation (out-of-key chord); and a control condition with an instrument manipulation. As predicted, memory for sentences declined when paired with the syntactic manipulation compared to the other two music manipulations, but the same pattern did not occur in word lists. This suggests that both sentences and music with a syntactic irregularity are accessing SWM. Word lists, however, are thought to be primarily accessing the phonological loop, and therefore did not show effects of shared processing. Musicians performed differently from non-musicians, suggesting that the processing of musical and linguistic syntax differs with musical ability. Such results suggest a separation in processing between the phonological loop and SWM, and give evidence for shared processing mechanisms between music and language syntax. © The Author(s) 2012.

It has recently been suggested that dyslexia may manifest as a deficit in the neural synchrony underlying language-based codes (Goswami, 2011), such that the phonological deficits apparent in dyslexia occur as a consequence of poor synchronisation of oscillatory brain signals to the sounds of language. There is compelling evidence to support this suggestion, and it provides an intriguing new development in understanding the aetiology of dyslexia. It is undeniable that dyslexia is associated with poor phonological coding, however, reading is also a visual task, and dyslexia has also been associated with poor visual coding, particularly visuo-spatial sensitivity. It has been hypothesized for some time that specific frequency oscillations underlie visual perception. Although little research has been done looking specifically at dyslexia and cortical frequency oscillations, it is possible to draw on converging evidence from visual tasks to speculate that similar deficits could occur in temporal frequency oscillations in the visual domain in dyslexia. Thus, here the plausibility of a visual correlate of the Temporal Sampling Framework is considered, leading to specific hypotheses and predictions for future research. A common underlying neural mechanism in dyslexia, may subsume qualitatively different manifestations of reading difficulty, which is consistent with the heterogeneity of the disorder, and may open the door for a new generation of exciting research. © 2014 Pammer.

Putative cyber addictions are of significant interest. There remains little experimental research into excessive use of first person shooter (FPS) games, despite their global popularity. Moreover, the role between excessive gaming and impulsivity remains unclear, with previous research showing conflicting findings. The current study investigated performances on a number of neuropsychological tasks (go/no-go, continuous performance task, Iowa gambling task) and a trait measure of impulsivity for a group of regular FPS gamers (n=25), addicted FPS gamers (n=22), and controls (n=22). Gamers were classified using the Addiction-Engagement Questionnaire. Addicted FPS gamers had significantly higher levels of trait impulsivity on the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale compared to controls. Addicted FPS gamers also had significantly higher levels of disinhibition in a go/no-go task and inattention in a continuous performance task compared to controls, whereas the regular FPS gamers had better decision making on the Iowa gambling task compared to controls. The results indicate impulsivity is associated with FPS gaming addiction, comparable to pathological gambling. The relationship between impulsivity and excessive gaming may be unique to the FPS genre. Furthermore, regular FPS gaming may improve decision making ability. © Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

'Looked-but-failed-to-see' vehicle collisions occur when a driver gives all indications of having responsibly evaluated the driving situation yet still fails to see a hazard that is clearly in view. The experience maps well onto the psychological phenomenon called inattentional blindness (IB). IB occurs when a viewer fails to see an unexpected object that is clearly visible, particularly if they are concentrating on an additional primary task. In this study, a driving-related IB task was used to explore whether an unexpected stimulus (US) such as a pedestrian or animal, is more likely to be seen in country or city-related driving scenarios if it is congruent or incongruent with the semantic context of the scenes, and thus congruent or incongruent with the attentional set of the viewer. Overall, participants were more likely to see the US in the City scenarios, which also demonstrated a borderline effect of congruency, with incongruent stimuli less likely to be seen than congruent stimuli. Analyses suggested that driver experience was related to detection of the US in City scenarios but not Country scenarios. However, analyses also revealed that participants generally tended to drive in city rather than country environments, thus prompting speculation that the results may reflect attentional requirements for familiar and unfamiliar driving scenarios. Thus we suggest that the analysis of the driving situation, and the attentional set that we develop to filter information, change when the driving situation is more familiar.

Background/Aims: There has been significant discussion surrounding the psychopathology of excessive gaming and whether it constitutes an addiction. The current study investigated physiological and subjective levels of arousal in gamers of two genres and the relationship between sensation seeking and gaming addiction. Methods: Heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP) and skin conductance were recorded at baseline, during gaming for 15 min and after gaming in 30 massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) and 30 first-person shooter (FPS) male gamers. Gamers were identified as addicted using the Addiction-Engagement Questionnaire. Sensation seeking was measured using the Arnett Inventory of Sensation Seeking. Results: Addicted MMORPG gamers (n = 16) displayed significant decreases in cardiovascular activity during gaming compared to baseline and showed significant increases after gaming. Addicted FPS gamers (n = 13) had significant increases in BP during gaming which decreased significantly after gaming. In comparison, non-addicted MMORPG gamers (n = 14) had significant decreases in HR during gaming, whereas BP in non-addicted MMORPG and FPS gamers (n = 17) increased during gaming and after gaming. There were no significant relationships between sensation seeking and addiction. Conclusion: There are physiological arousal deficits in addicted gamers, and these patterns differ according to the genre of game played. Copyright © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Many chemistry educators have adopted the process-oriented guidedinquiry learning (POGIL) pedagogy. However, it is not clear which aspects of POGIL are the most important in terms of actual learning. We compared 354 first-year undergraduate psychology students' learning in physiological psychology using four teaching methods: control, POGIL, POGIL without reporting [no report out (NRO)], and POGIL run by untrained graduate students [new facilitator (NF)]. Student activities were identical across POGIL variations and highly similar for control. Participants' knowledge was evaluated before (pretest), immediately after (posttest), and 2 wk later (followup). Control and POGIL groups showed no improvement at posttest, whereas NRO and NF groups both recalled more material than at pretest (P = 0.002 and P < 0.0005, respectively). In a surprise test 2 wk later, control (P < 0.0005), NRO (P = 0.03), and NF (P < 0.0005) groups recalled less than at posttest. The POGIL group showed the smallest drop in knowledge (P = 0.05). Importantly, the control group's knowledge was below pretest levels (P < 0.0005), whereas the POGIL, NRO, and NF groups' knowledge was not. Self-assessment of knowledge was consistent across groups at pretest, but POGIL participants had the lowest confidence at posttest and 2 wk later. At followup, the control, NRO, and NF groups showed greater confidence in their knowledge than the POGIL group (P = 0.03, P = 0.002, and P = 0.004, respectively). POGIL and its variations appear to consolidate existing knowledge against memory decay even when student confidence does not match performance. © 2013 The American Physiological Society.

There is current debate as to whether excessive use of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) constitutes an addiction. The aim of the following two studies was to investigate two markers of behavioural addiction, cue-reactivity and impulsivity, in a sample of MMORPG users. Study 1 employed a rapid serial visual presentation paradigm that required identification and recall of MMORPG or neutral words. Eighteen MMORPG users identified as addicted using the Addiction-Engagement Questionnaire had significantly better recall of MMORPG words compared to neutral words whereas 19 highly engaged and 20 non-MMORPG users showed no differences. These findings are consistent with previous behavioural addiction research. Study 2 explored evidence for trait impulsivity and disinhibition using a continuous performance task and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11. Twenty-three regular MMORPG users and 21 non-gamers did not differ in levels of impulsivity but MMORPG users exhibited significantly lower disinhibition. Significant relationships were found between addiction and both overall impulsivity and the non-planning factor of impulsivity, but not between addiction and the attentional or motor factors of impulsivity. Implications for research conceptualising excessive MMORPG use as a behavioural addiction and methods of identification are discussed. © 2008 Cyberpsychology.

Failures of conscious visual awareness occur when specific task demands prevent an observer from detecting a stimulus that would otherwise be clearly visible. Two examples are inattentional blindness (IB) and attentional blink (AB). IB is the failure to detect an unexpected stimulus when attention is otherwise engaged. AB describes the inability to detect a second target that is presented within 180-500 ms of the first target. Previous research has suggested that similar cognitive processes underlie both IB and AB; however, they are distinct phenomena, and no evidence has directly linked the two. We tested the same group of observers on an IB task and an AB task. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found that "non-noticers" who failed to detect an unexpected stimulus in the IB task also demonstrated a larger AB effect. This suggests that some observers may be more generally susceptible to failures of conscious visual awareness, regardless of specific context. © 2011 Psychonomic Society, Inc.

This article investigates how auditory attention affects inattentional blindness (IB), a failure of conscious awareness in which an observer does not notice an unexpected event because their attention is engaged elsewhere. Previous research using the attentional blink paradigm has indicated that listening to music can reduce failures of conscious awareness. It was proposed that listening to music would decrease IB by reducing observers' frequency of task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs). Observers completed an IB task that varied both visual and auditory demands. Listening to music was associated with significantly lower IB, but only when observers actively attended to the music. Follow-up experiments suggest this was due to the distracting qualities of the audio task. The results also suggest a complex relationship between IB and TUTs: during demanding tasks, as predicted, noticers of the unexpected stimulus reported fewer TUTs than non-noticers. During less demanding tasks, however, noticers reported more TUTs than non-noticers. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.

Inattentional blindness (IB) describes the failure to notice salient but unexpected stimuli when attention is partially engaged by another task. Few studies have explicitly investigated the role of eye movements in IB and the relative contributions of overt and covert attention. We recorded eye movements in a series of IB experiments using dynamic stimuli. Results indicate that eye movements do not predict IB; noticers and nonnoticers were equally likely to fixate on or near the unexpected item, often for similar durations. Perceptual load also determines whether observers will fixate the unexpected object. In a high perceptual load task, IB was high (81%) and most participants did not allocate overt attention to the unexpected object. Under lower perceptual load IB decreased to 54% and both noticers and nonnoticers fixated on the unexpected object. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

Do we use the same neurocognitive mechanisms to spell that we do to read? There is a considerable number of conflicting findings, such that evidence has been provided to support common mechanisms for reading and spelling, while other research supports the proposal that reading and spelling utilise unique neurocognitive resources. Sensitivity to visual spatial-frequency doubling (FD) has been demonstrated to correlate with and specifically predict orthographic processing when reading; therefore, if spelling and reading share some elements of orthographic representation, sensitivity to FD should similarly correlate with, and predict, spelling ability by virtue of this shared association. A double dissociation between reading and spelling was found such that sensitivity to the FD task, as mediated by the visual dorsal stream, predicted reading ability but not spelling, while the visual control task predicted spelling but not reading ability, in poor readers/spellers. The results support a dual-orthographic model with separate orthographic representations for reading and spelling. © 2010 a Pion publication.

Developmental dyslexia affects up to 10 per cent of the population and it is important to understand its causes. It is widely assumed that phonological deficits, that is, deficits in how words are sounded out, cause the reading difficulties in dyslexia. However, there is emerging evidence that phonological problems and the reading impairment both arise from poor visual (i.e., orthographic) coding. We argue that attentional mechanisms controlled by the dorsal visual stream help in serial scanning of letters and any deficits in this process will cause a cascade of effects, including impairments in visual processing of graphemes, their translation into phonemes and the development of phonemic awareness. This view of dyslexia localizes the core deficit within the visual system and paves the way for new strategies for early diagnosis and treatment. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

It is well documented that good reading skills may be dependent upon adequate dorsal stream processing. However, the degree to which dorsal stream deficits play a causal role in reading failure has not been established. This study used coherent motion and visual frequency doubling to examine whether dorsal stream sensitivity measured before the commencement of formal reading instruction can predict emerging literacy skills in Grade 1. We demonstrate that over age, IQ and Kindergarten Letter knowledge, pre-reading measures of dorsal stream functioning, as assessed by frequency doubling sensitivity, could predict early literacy skills. These findings suggest that the relationship between dorsal stream functioning and poor reading skills exists before children learn to read, strengthening the claim that dorsal stream deficits may play a contributing role in reading failure. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Learning to read is one of the most cognitively complex tasks we will ever learn to do. Thus understanding the reading process is not just intrinsically interesting, but can give us a number of valuable insights into the relationship between brain processes and cognitive behaviour. MEG neuroimaging allows us to investigate reading processes in terms of the spatial extent of cortical activations when reading, the timing between brain locations, and the frequency dynamics between different cortical areas. The big challenge now for neuroscience is to model all three components of neural behaviour in order to be able to really understand the complexity of human cognition. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Visual processing deficits in dyslexic readers are argued to evolve as a consequence of reading failure. This study examines dorsal stream functioning of children before they commence formal reading instruction to determine whether visual deficits precede reading difficulties. Coherent motion and visual frequency doubling detection were measured in children at familial risk for dyslexia and in children unselected for family reading history. Here we show that children who are at family risk for dyslexia demonstrate dorsal stream deficits before they learn to read, whilst demonstrating no corresponding deficits in coherent form and static grating control tasks. Results indicate that the dorsal visual deficits observed in dyslexic readers are unlikely to be the result of reading failure. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Different levels of dorsal stream functioning were teased apart to determine whether the observed deficits in dyslexic readers may exist as early as the retinal level, and to explore the relative contribution that the different aspects of dorsal processing may make to reading. The paradigm combining frequency doubled stimuli with endogenous cueing demonstrated that dyslexic readers possess a retinal level magnocellular deficit. Regression analyses provided evidence to suggest that different levels of dorsal processing relates to various aspects of reading skills, with low-level magnocellular M(y) processing relating to reading accuracy and irregular word reading, and dorsal stream functioning relating to all aspects of reading skills, including nonword reading. © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.

It has been suggested that the differences observed for dyslexic readers compared to normal readers on tasks measuring visual sensitivity may simply be the result of differences between the two groups in general cognitive ability and/or attentional engagement. One common way to accommodate this proposal is to match normal and dyslexic readers on IQ. However, an explicit test of this suggestion is to take normal and dyslexic readers who differ on IQ - where IQ would be expected to explain reading ability - and determine if visual sensitivity can still account for reading skill, even when IQ is taken into account. In this study we explored the relative contributions of nonverbal IQ, visual sensitivity as measured by sensitivity to the frequency doubling illusion, and phonological and irregular word reading to reading ability. Visual sensitivity explained a significant amount of variance in reading ability, over and above nonverbal IQ, accounting for 6% of the unique variance in reading ability. Moreover, visual sensitivity was related primarily to irregular word reading rather than to nonsense word decoding. This study demonstrates that low-level visual sensitivity plays an intrinsic role in reading aptitude, even when IQ differences between normal and dyslexic readers are contrived to maximize the contribution of IQ to reading skill. These results challenge the suggestion that impaired visual sensitivity may be epiphenomenal to poor reading skills. Copyright © 2007, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

A substantial amount of evidence has been collected to propose an exclusive role for the dorsal visual pathway in the control of guided visual search mechanisms, specifically in the preattentive direction of spatial selection [Vidyasagar, T. R. (1999). A neuronal model of attentional spotlight: Parietal guiding the temporal. Brain Research and Reviews, 30, 66-76; Vidyasagar, T. R. (2001). From attentional gating in macaque primary visual cortex to dyslexia in humans. Progress in Brain Research, 134, 297-312]. Moreover, it has been suggested recently that the dorsal visual pathway is specifically involved in the spatial selection and sequencing required for orthographic processing in visual word recognition. In this experiment we manipulate the demands for spatial processing in a word recognition, lexical decision task by presenting target words in a normal spatial configuration, or where the constituent letters of each word are spatially shifted relative to each other. Accurate word recognition in the Shifted-words condition should demand higher spatial encoding requirements, thereby making greater demands on the dorsal visual stream. Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) neuroimaging revealed a high frequency (35-40 Hz) right posterior parietal activation consistent with dorsal stream involvement occurring between 100 and 300 ms post-stimulus onset, and then again at 200-400 ms. Moreover, this signal was stronger in the shifted word condition, compared to the normal word condition. This result provides neurophysiological evidence that the dorsal visual stream may play an important role in visual word recognition and reading. These results further provide a plausible link between early stage theories of reading, and the magnocellular-deficit theory of dyslexia, which characterises many types of reading difficulty. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In addition to an intrinsic difficulty in reading and spelling, one of the defining characteristics of dyslexia is an enduring and pervasive difficulty in phonological coding, such that dyslexic readers find it particularly challenging to process and manipulate the constituent sounds of a language. Coexistent with this finding is the evidence that some dyslexic readers also demonstrate subtle sensory coding problems in the visual and auditory domains. Few theories have been proposed to unite these different findings within a coherent model of reading. Here the evidence for visual, auditory and phonological coding problems in dyslexia is briefly reviewed, and a hypothesis is proposed for how adequate early sensory coding may be intrinsic to phonological awareness and subsequent reading ability. In this hypothesis, a cortical network is assumed that incorporates the visual, auditory and phonological skills of reading. The visual sub-component of the network is mediated by the dorsal visual pathway, which is responsible for the accurate spatial encoding of letters, words and text. The auditory component of the network in pre-readers is intrinsic to the development of phonological sensitivity, and then grapheme-phoneme assimilation as reading skills develop. In this hypothesis, some of the symptoms of dyslexia may result from subtle problems in the encoding of both visual and auditory information and their role in maintaining the synchronicity of the reading network. © United Kingdom Literacy Association 2005.

WE tested the hypothesis that in a cluttered visual scene, the magnocellular (M) pathway is crucial for focusing attention serially on the objects in the field. Since developmental dyslexia is commonly associated with an M pathway deficit, we compared reading impaired children and age- matched normal readers in a search task that required the detection of a target defined by the conjunction of two features, namely form and colour, that are processed by the parvocellular dominated ventral neocortical stream. The dyslexic group's performance was significantly poorer than the controls when there were a large number of distractor items. The scheme of selective attention proposed from these results provides a neural mechanism that underlies reading and explains the pathophysiology of dyslexia.

There is considerable dispute regarding the nature of excessive or problematic Internet-related behaviour and whether it constitutes a clinical addiction. Classification of excessive gaming is hindered by a lack of experimental research investigating behavioural responses from gamers and comparing these patterns to those found in established addictions. We investigated whether an attentional bias for gaming-related words existed for addicted Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Gamers (MMORPGers) identified using the Addiction-Engagement Questionnaire. Forty frequent MMORPGers (15 female) and 19 non-MMORPGers (eight female) completed a computerised modified Stroop task comprised of game-related, negative and neutral word lists, Addiction-Engagement Questionnaire, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale 21, gaming-related variables. The results indicated that addicted MMORPGers had significantly longer reaction times to negative and MMORPG words compared to neutral words, whereas highly engaged and non-MMORPG participants showed no such bias. The presence of an attentional bias in addicted MMORPGers is comparable with research investigating this behavioural response in established addictions. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.