Name: using rapid serial visual presentation to measure set-specific capture, a consequence of distraction while multitasking
Uploaded: 2018-08-29T12:30:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking at JoVE.com

This research was made possible with startup funds from Arcadia University and Elmhurst College awarded to K.S.M., a student-faculty collaborative grant from Elmhurst College to E.A.W. and K.S.M., and an Arcadia University faculty development grant to K.S.M. We would like to thank Daniel H. Weissman, a collaborator on prior publications using versions of this protocol. We also wish to thank the additional students who collected data on previous versions of this protocol, including Marshall O'Moore, Patricia Chen, Amanda Lai, Elise Darling, Erika Pinsker, Somin Lee, Celine Santos, Greg Ramos, and Kathleen Trencheny.

All of the methods described here were approved by the Arcadia University Institutional Review Board.
1. Design and Prepare the Experiment for Data Collection
NOTE: See the introduction for general information about design and trial types. See the discussion for more information about specific choices that can be made in each of these sub-steps. See Video 1 for a dynamic view of the task, and Video 2 for a slowed down version of the t...

There are several considerations in using this method. The most important step to take is to ensure that the design requires participants to search for two or more targets at a time, and that there are &#34;STC&#34; and &#34;DTC&#34; distractor trial types, as these will provide the researcher with a measure of set-specific capture (STC - DTC). It is also helpful to have an &#34;NTC&#34; trial type to properly measure contingent attentional capture (NTC - STC), though one can estimate NTC performance with Target Alone pe...

Contingent attentional capture refers to a performance cost (slower reaction times and lower accuracy) that occurs when a participant erroneously directs attention to a distractor similar to their search goal. Indexing top-down orienting of attention, contingent attentional capture only occurs when a goal-relevant distractor is present (e.g., a green digit when searching for green letters), but not when a goal-irrelevant stimulus is present (e.g., a blue digit). Studies of contingent attentional capture have been integral to the understanding of top-down orienting and the limitations of information processing, namely, that once a stimulus captures attention, it is processed in a serial and effortful manner1,2,3. Contingent attentional capture is most often measured using static displays that mimic a common visual search, such as searching for a red pepper in the produce section of a grocery store3,4. In this example, an item sharing features with the target, such as a red apple, might capture attention, slowing down the search. Contingent attentional capture can be observed for color3,5,6,7, shape8, motion9, time10, and semantic relevance11,12. In addition to static displays, contingent attentional capture has been measured using dynamic displays that mimic situations such as searching for a landmark while driving along a road, or looking for a person in a quickly moving crowd13,14.
More recently, researchers have investigated the consequences of attending to distractors when more than one search goal is active (such as searching for a red pepper and&#160;garlic at the same time7,8,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23.) In such situations, distraction costs can be especially devastating. While evidence is mixed as to whether multi-goal searches impair performance when distraction is not present, attentional capture from goal-related distractors can cause very large deficits in performance. In particular, we identified a new form of attentional capture called &#34;set-specific capture,&#34; which occurs when multiple goals are concurrently maintained. In the case of set-specific capture, performance costs are especially large when a distractor resembling one target goal (e.g., an apple) grabs attention from the target item matching the other goal (e.g., the garlic)7,20,21,22. See Figure 1 for an explanation of a typical finding, using this grocery example.
As in the case with contingent attentional capture, set-specific capture reveals that information is processed in a serial and effortful manner: when a distractor captures attention, attentional resources are drawn away from the target. In addition, set-specific capture shows that directing attention to the distractor&#39;s features leads to enhancement of the related goal within working memory. Thus, when more than one goal is concurrently maintained, this goal enhancement comes at the expense of any other current goals7,21,22. Set-specific capture is a consequence of multitasking, akin to switch costs and mixing costs found in task-switching studies, but also distinct from these measures24. It is important that future studies investigate this multitasking cost, both in order to understand the magnitude and nature of the impairment for practical reasons (e.g., safety-related situations involving dual-tasking), as well as to refine our understanding of the mechanics of visual search and how goals are maintained. For example, set-specific capture provides support for the idea that a single goal can be focused upon while a target or target-resembling distractor is attended, but that more goals are maintained in an accessory state during visual search25,26,27.
The present method provides a robust way of measuring both contingent attentional capture and set-specific capture within a single paradigm. It uses a dynamic display, inspired by previous work on the attentional blink and contingent attentional capture with rapid serial visual presentations (RSVPs) of stimuli13,14,28,29,30. This type of display yields much larger effects than do static display tasks, which usually rely on reaction time as a dependent measure, rather than accuracy3,31,32. These larger effects allow researchers to use this paradigm to measure more sensitive manipulations of set-specific capture, such as the effect of practice20.
In this task, participants search a heterogeneously colored, centrally-located RSVP for letters appearing in either of two &#34;target&#34; ink colors (e.g., green and orange; see Figure 2 for example stimulus colors). Any time a participant detects a target-colored letter appearing in the central display, they indicate whether the letter was from the first half of the alphabet (&#34;press the &#39;J&#39; key&#34;) or the second half of the alphabet (&#34;press the &#39;K&#39; key&#34;). Meanwhile, participants ignore two RSVP displays consisting of mostly grey letters that appear on either side of the central display. Thus, at any given time, there are three letters on the screen at once - one centrally located and two peripheral. The letters change identity and color every 116 ms.
An experiment may consist of the following trial types: Target Alone, Distractor Alone, Non-Target Colored Distractor (NTC), Same Target Colored Distractor (STC), and Different Target Colored Distractor (DTC). In the Target Alone trial type, a target letter (e.g., a green C) appears in the central RSVP, without any color changes occurring in the peripheral RSVPs preceding it. In the Distractor Alone&#160;trial type, a target-colored item appears in one of the peripheral RSVP displays without a target item appearing afterward. The purpose of this trial type is to prevent participants from using a peripheral color change to predict an upcoming target, by including some trials in which a distractor did not predict a target. In the NTC, STC, and DTC trial types, a colored letter distractor appears in one of the peripheral displays before the target appears centrally, with a &#34;lag&#34; of 1 - 4 display frames (116 - 464 ms) between the appearance of the distractor and the target. For NTC trials, the distractor is not target-colored (e.g., a purple &#39;V&#39;). In STC trials, the distractor (e.g., an orange &#39;B&#39;) is the same color as the following target (e.g., an orange &#39;T&#39;). In DTC trials, the distractor (e.g., an orange &#39;C&#39;) is target-colored, but not the same color as the upcoming target (e.g., a green &#39;V&#39;). See Figure 3 for a schematic of the task, including examples of each trial type. See Video 1 (video) for an example of the task. Viewed on loop, the example includes two targets. Video 2 (video) is the same video at a reduced speed for clarity.
Contingent attentional capture is indicated by the difference between NTC and STC performance, as a target-colored item captures attention only when it bears resemblance to one of the current goals (i.e., not on NTC trials, which usually yield the same accuracy level as Target Alone trials). Set-specific capture is indicated by the difference between STC and DTC performance. We have published several versions of this task, with slightly different configurations of trial types (i.e., with or without NTC and Distractor Alone trials; with just lags 1 and 3, with a variety of target colors, with three targets, etc.7,20,21,22).
One notable feature of this method is that it uses a continuous display. Each trial includes the minimum components to represent that trial type, (e.g., a peripheral distractor, a target, and any letters that appeared in time between the distractor and target.) &#34;Filler&#34; stimuli connect one trial to the next seamlessly, and participants respond during this intertrial interval, whenever they detect a target. The interval lasts from 15 - 21 frames (1740 - 2436 ms), which is sufficient time to respond; most responses occur within 700 ms. An advantage of this method is that chance performance is near 0%; participants are not explicitly aware that a trial has ended if they miss a target item. This allows for three types of outcomes: 1) an identified letter, which will lead to a correct response, 2) a detected but not identified item (e.g., &#34;I saw something green&#34;), which will lead to a 50% chance of a correct response, and 3) an undetected / missed item, which leads to no response (coded as inaccurate). These three outcomes provide more information about the degree of stimulus processing than do tasks with a two alternative forced choice response, which cannot differentiate between detection-without-identification (i.e., a response error) and an outright miss (i.e., an omission error).
We describe the method here as we have used it in published work, in which participants search for colored letters. However, it can be modified for use with images33 and potentially other stimuli, such as words34. Moreover, distractors can appear as other colored items in the central display rather than just as colored letters appearing in the periphery (e.g., a target-colored digit in the central display)21. It is also likely that set-specific capture can be identified in static displays. The further development of the extensions of this method will allow researchers to investigate topics such as the effect of reward and motivation on distraction35, or whether distraction costs are modulated by the number of concurrently maintained goals33. Other applications could include measuring distraction costs in real-world contexts such as when completing a demanding visual search task (e.g., airport baggage screening or radiology screening)36,37,38.

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using rapid serial visual presentation to measure set-specific capture, a consequence of distraction while multitasking

This method uses a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm to measure the cost of distraction when participants maintain multiple search goals. The protocol identifies two types of distraction within a single task - contingent attentional capture and set-specific capture - that represent different types of limitations of cognitive processing. Participants search for letters in two or more &#34;target&#34; ink colors (e.g., green and orange) within a continuous RSVP stream of heterogeneously colored letters, while ignoring two peripheral RSVPs of letters. Upon detecting a target, participants are to identify the letter. On some trials, target-colored distractors appear in the periphery just prior to the presentation of a target, causing a drop in target identification performance. Contingent attentional capture is observed by examining performance on trials in which the peripheral distractor is the same color as the target on that trial (e.g., both orange). Set-specific capture is represented by performance on trials in which the peripheral distractor is target-colored (e.g., orange), but not the same color as the target on that trial (e.g., green.) By varying the amount of time (i.e., the number of stimuli appearing) between the presentation of the distractor and the target, researchers can observe how participants recover from these distraction costs over time. As compared to static displays that are often used to measure contingent attentional capture, the dynamic display produces much larger effects, allowing the researcher to identify subtle effects of smaller manipulations. An unusual aspect of our design is that it employs a continuous display; &#34;filler&#34; stimuli connect one trial to the next seamlessly, and participants respond during this interval whenever they detect a target. The continuous display reduces chance performance to near-zero levels (rather than 50%) and provides researchers with a more sensitive measure of performance differences across trial types.

We report several examples of representative data. In the first example, there were two lags (1 and 3), two distractor trial types (STC and DTC), and 57 participants. There were also Target Alone and Distractor Alone trial types. In a repeated measures ANOVA with the factors trial type and lag, there was a main effect of each factor as well as an interaction between the two. Performance was better at lag 3 (mean (M) = 0.655, standard error (SE) = 0.018) than at lag 1 (<e...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking at JoVE.com

Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking

This method uses a dynamic visual display to index costs of distraction during visual search, including both &#34;contingent attentional capture&#34; and &#34;set-specific capture,&#34; which is a cost of distraction that occurs when the participants maintain multiple search goals simultaneously. This method has revealed basic mechanisms and limitations of visual attention.

This method uses a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm to measure the cost of distraction when participants maintain multiple search goals. ...

This protocol helps researchers investigate distraction while multitasking in a visual search environment. For example, say you're grocery shopping, and you're looking for a red pepper. When you apply attention to this task, you enhance the processing of all similar items such as everything that's red.As a result, everything red will capture your attention and slow down your search. Now, suppose you have more than one item on your grocery list, such as a red pepper and a yellow pepper. To look for more than one item at a time, the processing of information relevant to both items will be enhanced.How does distraction effect multitasking search? Our protocol addresses this question. To investigate this we asked participants to search a rapidly changing central display of color letters and identify all the letters that appear in either of two particular target colors.Occasionally, the gray letters in the left and right displays will change colors, which is distracting. In this slowed down example, there's an orange U target and a green X target. This method can help answer key questions about visual attention, such as how search goals are maintained and used in memory and what are our limitations of multitasking.A major advantage of this technique is that the task produces large effects, providing researchers with the flexibility of measuring nuance aspects of distraction. This technique extends towards applied questions such as how do radiologist search medical images for abnormalities, or how security officers search bags for contraband. Demonstrating the procedure will be Jamie Jasina and Ariel Kershner, undergraduates from the Attention, Memory, and Cognition Laboratory.Before beginning the experiment, select the trial types and the number of trials within each type. For example, in Target Alone trials the target appears without any recent color changes to letters in the periphery. In Distractor Alone trials, a letter in the periphery changes to a target color, but no target appears subsequently in the central display.In Non-target colored distractor trials, a colored letter appears in the periphery just before a target appears centrally, but the distractor is not target colored. In same target colored distractor trials, the colored peripheral item appearing ahead of the target is the same color as that target. In different target colored distractor trials, the colored peripheral item appearing ahead of the target is also target colored, but is not the same color as the target on that trial.Now, select the target distractor lag lengths in each trial type that contain the distractors and targets. And select the target, distractor, and central filler colors for the letters, insuring that target colors are not adjacent on the color wheel. When the task is designed and programed, seat the participant 57 centimeters away from the monitor using a chin rest to enforce this viewing distance, and secure the monitor in a fixed location as necessary.Open the software, navigate to the experiment folder, and enter the experiment script into the command window. Enter the parameters, such as the date and the participant number, and help the participant through the instructions. Supervise the participant during the experiment to ensure that a uniform viewing distance from the monitor is maintained, that the task is being properly completed, and that the participant is not falling asleep or becoming distracted.Remind the participant of the response keys, to slow and consider which response to make after identifying a letter, and that the response will be recorded as correct even if it does not occur immediately. Encourage the participant to take breaks as necessary. This task is very difficult with performances averaging about 75%correct.Be sure to encourage your participants not to become discouraged if they're making many mistakes. When the program concludes, debrief and dismiss the participant. Performance on Target Alone trials is equally good whether participants are looking for one or two targets at the same time.When a peripheral item appears that is not target colored, this is not distracting. When the peripheral distractor and the target are the same color, performance drops as the target color distractor captures attention. The difference in performance between non-target colored trials and same target colored trials is considered contingent attentional capture.When a target colored distractor is not the same color as the subsequent target on that trial, performance plummets. This set specific capture effect is two to three times as large as contingent attentional capture. Set specific capture occurs when an irrelevant stimulus that is related to one goal captures attention and the ability to identify a target matching the other goal is impaired due to a temporary change in how the goals are represented in memory.As well as being so costly, set specific capture takes longer to recover from than does contingent attentional capture. While attempting this procedure, it's important to provide feedback and encouragement. This procedure can be adapted to different stimuli such as images, to determine how distraction effects change when many goals are maintained.Future studies could examine how we search for different features or concepts and may reveal mechanisms of attention and how they relate to memory and perception.

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Behavior

A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets

When viewers search for targets in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream, if two targets are presented within about 500 msec of each other, the first target may be easy to spot but the second is likely to be missed. This phenomenon of attentional blink (AB) has been widely studied to probe the temporal capacity of attention for detecting visual targets. However, with the typical procedure of AB experiments, it is not possible to examine how the processing of non-target items in RSVP may be affected by attention. This paper describes a novel dual task procedure combined with RSVP to test effects of AB for nontargets at varied stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). In an exemplar experiment, a target category was first displayed, followed by a sequence of 8 nouns. If one of the nouns belonged to the target category, participants would respond &#8216;yes&#8217; at the end of the sequence, otherwise participants would respond &#8216;no&#8217;. Two 2-alternative forced choice memory tasks followed the response to determine if participants remembered the words immediately before or after the target, as well as a random word from another part of the sequence. In a second exemplar experiment, the same design was used, except that 1) the memory task was counterbalanced into two groups with SOAs of either 120 or 240 msec and 2) three memory tasks followed the sequence and tested remembrance for nontarget nouns in the sequence that could be anywhere from 3 items prior the target noun position to 3 items following the target noun position. Representative results from a previously published study demonstrate that our procedure can be used to examine divergent effects of attention that not only enhance targets but also suppress nontargets. Here we show results from a representative participant that replicated the previous finding.&#160;

This paper describes a novel dual task procedure combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to look at attentional blink at varied stimulus onset asynchronies. This experimental procedure differed from others in that it tested attentional blink for nontargets.

When viewers search for targets in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream, if two targets are presented within about 500 msec of each other, the ...

Methods to Test Visual Attention Online

Online data collection methods have particular appeal to behavioral scientists because they offer the promise of much larger and much more representative data samples than can typically be collected on college campuses. However, before such methods can be widely adopted, a number of technological challenges must be overcome &#8211; in particular in experiments where tight control over stimulus properties is necessary. Here we present methods for collecting performance data on two tests of visual attention. Both tests require control over the visual angle of the stimuli (which in turn requires knowledge of the viewing distance, monitor size, screen resolution, etc.) and the timing of the stimuli (as the tests involve either briefly flashed stimuli or stimuli that move at specific rates). Data collected on these tests from over 1,700 online participants were consistent with data collected in laboratory-based versions of the exact same tests. These results suggest that with proper care, timing/stimulus size dependent tasks can be deployed in web-based settings.

To replicate laboratory settings, online data collection methods for visual tasks require tight control over stimulus presentation. We outline methods for the use of a web application to collect performance data on two tests of visual attention.

Online data collection methods have particular appeal to behavioral scientists because they offer the promise of much larger and much more representative ...

A Method to Quantify Visual Information Processing in Children Using Eye Tracking

Visual problems that occur early in life can have major impact on a child's development. Without verbal communication and only based on observational methods, it is difficult to make a quantitative assessment of a child's visual problems. This limits accurate diagnostics in children under the age of 4 years and in children with intellectual disabilities. Here we describe a quantitative method that overcomes these problems. The method uses a remote eye tracker and a four choice preferential looking paradigm to measure eye movement responses to different visual stimuli. The child sits without head support in front of a monitor with integrated infrared cameras. In one of four monitor quadrants a visual stimulus is presented. Each stimulus has a specific visual modality with respect to the background, e.g., form, motion, contrast or color. From the reflexive eye movement responses to these specific visual modalities, output parameters such as reaction times, fixation accuracy and fixation duration are calculated to quantify a child's viewing behavior. With this approach, the quality of visual information processing can be assessed without the use of communication. By comparing results with reference values obtained in typically developing children from 0-12 years, the method provides a characterization of visual information processing in visually impaired children. The quantitative information provided by this method can be advantageous for the field of clinical visual assessment and rehabilitation in multiple ways. The parameter values provide a good basis to: (i) characterize early visual capacities and consequently to enable early interventions; (ii) compare risk groups and follow visual development over time; and (iii), construct an individual visual profile for each child.

A method is described to quantify the quality of visual information processing based on reflexive eye movements in response to specific visual modalities. Reaction times and fixation output parameters are used to characterize visual performance in children with and without visual impairments from 6 months of age.

Visual problems that occur early in life can have major impact on a child's development. Without verbal communication and only based on observational ...

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Many techniques have been developed to visualize how an image would appear to an individual with a different visual sensitivity: e.g., because of optical or age differences, or a color deficiency or disease. This protocol describes a technique for incorporating sensory adaptation into the simulations. The protocol is illustrated with the example of color vision, but is generally applicable to any form of visual adaptation. The protocol uses a simple model of human color vision based on standard and plausible assumptions about the retinal and cortical mechanisms encoding color and how these adjust their sensitivity to both the average color and range of color in the prevailing stimulus. The gains of the mechanisms are adapted so that their mean response under one context is equated for a different context. The simulations help reveal the theoretical limits of adaptation and generate &#34;adapted images&#34; that are optimally matched to a specific environment or observer. They also provide a common metric for exploring the effects of adaptation within different observers or different environments. Characterizing visual perception and performance with these images provides a novel tool for studying the functions and consequences of long-term adaptation in vision or other sensory systems.

This article describes a novel method for simulating and studying adaptation in the visual system.

Many techniques have been developed to visualize how an image would appear to an individual with a different visual sensitivity: e.g., because of optical ...

Psychophysical Tracking Method to Measure Taste Preferences in Children and Adults

The Monell two-series, forced-choice, paired-comparison tracking method provides a reliable measure of sweet taste preferences from childhood to adulthood. The method, which is identical for children, adolescents, and adults, is of short duration (&#60; 15 min), does not rely on sustained attention or place demands on memory (which would yield spurious age differences), and minimizes the impact of language development, making this method amenable to the cognitive limitations of pediatric populations. In this whole-mouth tasting method, subjects are asked to taste (without swallowing) pairs of solutions of different sucrose concentrations and to point to the solution they prefer. Each subsequent pair contains the participant&#39;s preceding preferred concentration and an adjacent stimulus concentration. The procedure continues until the subject chooses either a given concentration of sucrose when paired with both a higher and a lower concentration, or the highest or lowest concentration two consecutive times. Subjects are prevented from reaching response criteria on the basis of first or second position bias by the two-series design of the method, which counterbalances the order of solution presentation within each pair between the series (the weaker concentration is presented first in Series 1, second in Series 2). The geometric mean of the two sucrose concentrations chosen in Series 1 and 2 is an estimate of the participant&#39;s most preferred level of sucrose. Sucrose preference as determined with this laboratory-based measure has been shown to be associated with preference for sugars in foods and beverages and with taste receptor genotype, family history of alcoholism, and race/ethnicity, as well as depressive symptomatology among pediatric populations. The method has real-world relevance and has been applied to determine most preferred level of other tastes (e.g., salt), making it a valuable psychophysical tool.

Sweet taste has powerful hedonic appeal among people of all ages, particularly children. Described herein is a reliable and valid method that can be used to determine the level of sweetness most preferred, making it a valuable psychophysical tool for scientists.

The Monell two-series, forced-choice, paired-comparison tracking method provides a reliable measure of sweet taste preferences from childhood to ...

How to Build a Dichoptic Presentation System That Includes an Eye Tracker

The presentation of different stimuli to the two eyes, dichoptic presentation, is essential for studies involving 3D vision and interocular suppression. There is a growing literature on the unique experimental value of pupillary and oculomotor measures, especially for research on interocular suppression. Although obtaining eye-tracking measures would thus benefit studies that use dichoptic presentation, the hardware essential for dichoptic presentation (e.g. mirrors) often interferes with high-quality eye tracking, especially when using a video-based eye tracker. We recently described an experimental setup that combines a standard dichoptic presentation system with an infrared eye tracker by using infrared-transparent mirrors1. The setup is compatible with standard monitors and eye trackers, easy to implement, and affordable (on the order of US$1,000). Relative to existing methods it has the benefits of not requiring special equipment and posing few limits on the nature and quality of the visual stimulus. Here we provide a visual guide to the construction and use of our setup.

We recently proposed a method that allows dichoptic visual stimulus presentation and binocular eye tracking simultaneously1. The key is the combination of an infrared eye tracker and the corresponding infrared-transparent mirrors. This manuscript provides an in depth protocol for initial setup and everyday operation.

The presentation of different stimuli to the two eyes, dichoptic presentation, is essential for studies involving 3D vision and interocular suppression. ...

Central and Divided Visual Field Presentation of Emotional Images to Measure Hemispheric Differences in Motivated Attention

Two dominant theories on lateralized processing of emotional information exist in the literature. One theory posits that unpleasant emotions are processed by right frontal regions, while pleasant emotions are processed by left frontal regions. The other theory posits that the right hemisphere is more specialized for the processing of emotional information overall, particularly in posterior regions.
Assessing the different roles of the cerebral hemispheres in processing emotional information can be difficult without the use of neuroimaging methodologies, which are not accessible or affordable to all scientists. Divided visual field presentation of stimuli can allow for the investigation of lateralized processing of information without the use of neuroimaging technology. 
This study compared central versus divided visual field presentations of emotional images to assess differences in motivated attention between the two hemispheres. The late positive potential (LPP) was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs) methodologies to assess motivated attention. Future work will pair this paradigm with a more active behavioral task to explore the behavioral impacts on the attentional differences found.

This study compared central versus divided visual field presentations of emotional images to assess differences in motivated attention between the two hemispheres. The late positive potential (LPP) was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs) methodologies to assess motivated attention.

Two dominant theories on lateralized processing of emotional information exist in the literature. One theory posits that unpleasant emotions are processed ...

Use of a Video Scoring Anchor for Rapid Serial Assessment of Social Communication in Toddlers

Reciprocal social behavior (RSB), an early-emerging capacity to engage in social contingency&#8212;which is foundational for both social learning and social competency&#8212;is hypothesized to be disrupted in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The ability to quantify the full range of RSB during the toddler period, when core symptoms of ASD often arise, is pivotal for evaluating early risk for ASD, characterizing social development, and tracking response to early interventions. However, important parameters of variation in RSB&#8212;especially prior to the development of verbal language&#8212;can be nuanced and difficult to characterize using questionnaire-based methods. To address this challenge, we developed a system for measuring quantitative variation in RSB in toddlers (ages 18 - 30 months) that incorporated not only standard questionnaire data from caregivers but also a novel set of video-referenced items, through which a respondent compares the behavior of a subject to that observed in a short video of a young child manifesting a highly competent level of social communication. Testing of this measure in a general population sample of twins confirmed that both the video-referenced items and the RSB Total Score (video-referenced items plus non-video-referenced items) displayed unimodal, continuous distributions, strong internal consistency, marked preservation of individual differences, and extremely high heritability. In addition, video-referenced items were particularly sensitive to quantifying incremental changes in social communication, a major element of RSB, over the course of early childhood development. Scores on the vrRSB clearly differentiated children with and without ASD and these data comprise an initial validation of this promising method for quantifying early RSB&#8212;cross-sectionally, over time, and as a function of early intervention.

Here we present a protocol for administration of the video-referenced rating of reciprocal social behavior (vrRSB) using a paper or online version. This survey quantifies RSB, a prerequisite for social competence, in toddlers through &#34;video-referenced&#34; items whereby a subject is compared to a reference child shown in a three-minute video.

Reciprocal social behavior (RSB), an early-emerging capacity to engage in social contingency&#8212;which is foundational for both social learning and ...

Olfactory Context Dependent Memory: Direct Presentation of Odorants

Information is retrieved more effectively when the retrieval occurs in the same context as that in which the information was first encoded. This is termed context dependent memory (CDM). One category of cues that have been shown to effectively produce CDM effects are odors. However, it is unclear what the boundary conditions of these CDM effects are. In particular, given that olfaction has been called an implicit sense, it is possible that odors are only effective mnemonic cues when they are presented in the background. This assertion seems even more likely given that previous research has shown odors to be poor cues during paired associate memory tests, where odors are in the focus of attention as mnemonic cues for other information. In order to determine whether odors are only effective contextual mnemonic cues when presented outside the central focus of an observer, an olfactory CDM experiment was performed in which odorants were presented directly, rather than ambiently. Direct presentation was accomplished with the aid of an olfactometer. The olfactometer not only allows for direct presentation of odorants, but provides other methodological benefits, including the allowance of trial by trial manipulations of odorant presentations and, relatedly, time-specific releases of odorants. The presence of the same odor during both encoding and retrieval enhanced memory performance, regardless of whether the odor was presented ambiently or directly. This finding can serve as a basis for future olfactory CDM research which can utilize the benefits of direct presentation.

The use of an olfactometer for directly presenting odorants opens exciting opportunities for researchers of olfactory memory. The current paper discusses issues related to this methodology as related to a previously published experiment on olfactory context dependent memory.

Information is retrieved more effectively when the retrieval occurs in the same context as that in which the information was first encoded. This is termed ...

Visual Classical Conditioning in Wood Ants

Several species of insects have become model systems for studying learning and memory formation. Although many studies focus on freely moving animals, studies implementing classical conditioning paradigms with harnessed insects have been important for investigating the exact cues that individuals learn and the neural mechanisms underlying learning and memory formation. Here we present a protocol for evoking visual associative learning in wood ants through classical conditioning. In this paradigm, ants are harnessed and presented with a visual cue (a blue cardboard), the conditional stimulus (CS), paired with an appetitive sugar reward, the unconditional stimulus (US). Ants perform a Maxilla-Labium Extension Reflex (MaLER), the unconditional response (UR), which can be used as a readout for learning. Training consists of 10 trials, separated by a 5-minute intertrial interval (ITI). Ants are also tested for memory retention 10 minutes or 1 hour after training. This protocol has the potential to allow researchers to analyze, in a precise and controlled manner, the details of visual memory formation and the neural basis of learning and memory formation in wood ants.

We present a protocol for the classical conditioning of harnessed ants that permits researchers to study visual learning and memory formation at a level of analysis not possible with freely moving individuals.

Several species of insects have become model systems for studying learning and memory formation. Although many studies focus on freely moving animals, ...