UC Davis

Attention as an umbrella term covers a vast array of topics. In Chapter 1, we review the relevant background on selective attention, as it is a vital function for humans to navigate the stimulus-rich environments they are immersed in and how it relates to object recognition. In Chapter 2, we explore the role of target templates that are powerful heuristics for integrating remembered concepts with novel percepts in a task-efficient manner. Target-distractor similarity and linear separability have previously been shown to moderate properties of the target template representation in memory for unidimensional objects; we sought to extend these findings in multidimensional objects (each dimension of which was independently manipulated) by recruiting participants to perform simultaneous visual search and memory probe tasks. Results showed that target-distractor similarity moderated search efficiency and was associated with an off-veridical memory bias and an altered method of extracting information. And in Chapter 3, we review established and experimental interventions for children and adolescents with attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder to improve this population’s wide array of atypical and adverse symptoms, including selective attention deficits.