The ability to pay attention to information relevant to our current goals is a cornerstone of successful behaviors. However, distraction is inevitable when we are engaged in activities that take time to accomplish. To act efficiently, our brains must rapidly identify distracting sensory signals as being task-irrelevant and move our attention to a new object or location with greater potential relevance. With funding from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Joy Geng of the University of California at Davis is investigating how people suppress processing of distracters that have captured their attention in order to continue on with goal-oriented behaviors. The investigators use eye-tracking and behavioral psychophysics to determine how object processing is prioritized based on the current behavioral and environmental context. Analyses of these data reveals the critical features of objects that determine the likelihood of distraction in the first place and then the efficiency with which attention can be disengaged from it and returned to current goal-oriented task. In conjunction with the behavioral experiments, the investigators use functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related potentials to identify the brain networks involved in terminating attentional processing of distracters, and the timing of the cognitive components involved. The behavioral and brain projects are synergistic in identifying the key cognitive mechanisms that support the ability to control goal-oriented behaviors and the neural systems in humans that underlie them.
Goal-oriented behaviors require time to accomplish, but today's world is filled with constant sources of distracting information that frequently cannot be ignored. This project investigates the mechanisms by which efficient rejection of distracting information occurs. The research will help explain how to limit the amount of time that a distracting event interrupts an ongoing goal. The broader impacts of this research are likely to be significant, given the incredible quantity of information we encounter on a daily basis in the classroom, workplace, and even while driving or interacting with friends and family. For example, findings from the proposed research may promote the development of procedures that help children to actively deal with distraction (rather than to try to avoid it) in a way that allows them to return to their current task more efficiently. In addition, a better understanding of how attention resolves interference will provide insight into psychiatric disorders characterized by dysfunctions of attention to relevant and away from irrelevant sources of information.
