• Search Research Projects
  • Search Researchers
  • How to Use
  1. Back to previous page

What guides attention when searching the mind?

Research Project

Project/Area Number 21K20306
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up

Allocation TypeMulti-year Fund
Review Section 0110:Psychology and related fields
Research InstitutionWaseda University

Principal Investigator

Kong Garry  早稲田大学, 高等研究所, 講師(任期付) (70906370)

Project Period (FY) 2021-08-30 – 2023-03-31
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2022)
Budget Amount *help
¥2,210,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥510,000)
Fiscal Year 2022: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000)
KeywordsAttention / Visual Working Memory / Visual Cognition / Visual Search / Cognitive Psychology
Outline of Research at the Start

This project will investigate the reasons for limitations in human attention by addressing this issue through the lens of visual working memory. Attention is typically researched through perception, e.g., most experiments involve searching our field of view. While our understanding of attention has been greatly enhanced through these attention to perception experiments, attention can also be focused on memory. Do the established rules of attention hold when we use attention within visual working memory?

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Across three studies, we investigated the role of features when directing attention internally towards visual working memory. We have determined that both the guidance and the manipulation of objects in attention is a feature-based process. Furthermore, we have determined that the features that can guide attention internally is broader than it is for externally directed attention. Further research is required to determine whether these findings are due to the difference between visual perception and visual working memory, or whether this is a fundamental difference that occurs when changing the direction of attention.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

The phenomena of ‘looking, but not seeing’ is a growing cause of concern, causing issues such as traffic accidents due to missed obstacles. This research contributes to a growing body of work showing that people do not pay attention to an object, only the features that make it up (e.g., its colour).

Report

(3 results)
  • 2022 Annual Research Report   Final Research Report ( PDF )
  • 2021 Research-status Report
  • Research Products

    (5 results)

All 2022 Other

All Int'l Joint Research (2 results) Presentation (3 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 3 results)

  • [Int'l Joint Research] New York University Abu Dhabi(アラブ首長国連邦)

    • Related Report
      2022 Annual Research Report
  • [Int'l Joint Research] Sun Yat-sen University(中国)

    • Related Report
      2022 Annual Research Report
  • [Presentation] Objects in Visual Working Memory is Indexed by a Single Feature2022

    • Author(s)
      Garry Kong
    • Organizer
      Vision Sciences Society
    • Related Report
      2022 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Visual Versus Memory Search: The Role of High Versus Low-Level Features2022

    • Author(s)
      Edyta Sasin, Yunzhe Sun, Daryl Fougnie, Garry Kong
    • Organizer
      Object Perception, Attention & Memory
    • Related Report
      2022 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Objects in Visual Working Memory are Indexed by a Single Feature2022

    • Author(s)
      KONG Garry
    • Organizer
      Vision Sciences Society 2022
    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research

URL: 

Published: 2021-10-22   Modified: 2024-01-30  

Information User Guide FAQ News Terms of Use Attribution of KAKENHI

Powered by NII kakenhi