background: several studies have shown that attentional bias plays a role in the beginning, persistence and relapse of substance abuse disorder. therefore, identifying the factors related to attentional bias in substance abusers is important. in so doing, the present study was aimed at examining the relationship between attentional bias, anxiety sensitivity and metacognitive beliefs in substanc...

Attentional gestures in dialogues provide critical cues to the focus of attention of the participants in the dialogues. Attentional gestures are evidence of the engagement process by which participants start, maintain and end their perceived connection to one another. This article investigates engagement and gestures that indicate engagement. It then applies these concepts to the development of...

Attentional selection involves brain processes that select and control the flow of information into the mechanisms that underlie perception and consciousness. One theory proposes that the neural activity that represents the stimuli or events to be attended to is selected through modification of its synchrony. Recent experimental evidence supports this theory, by showing that changes in attentio...

This paper claims that reliance on discourse focus to guide the production of rhetorically structured texts is insufficient over lengthier stretches of prose. Instead, this paper argues that at least three distinct attentional constraints are required: discourse focus [Sidner, 1979, 1983; Grosz and Sidner, 1986], temporal focus [Webber, 1988], and a novel notion of spatial focus. The paper illu...

We propose an implementation of covert attention mechanisms with spiking neurons. Spiking neural models describe the activity of a neuron with precise spike-timing rather than firing rate. We investigate the interests offered by such a temporal code for low-level vision and early attentional process. This paper describes a spiking neural network which achieves saliency extraction and stable att...

In two experiments, we tested the prediction that rudimentary approach, relative to avoidance, motivational cues bolster attentional flexibility. This prediction was assessed using manipulations of both exteroceptive and interoceptive motivational cues and with two different measures of attentional flexibility, the Stroop task and the 2-back task. Results were consistent with predictions, sugge...

Substance-dependent patients automatically and involuntarily allocate their attention to drug cues in the environment, a process referred to as attentional bias. Attentional bias is increased during periods of subjective craving and predictive of treatment outcome and relapse in substance dependence. Despite recent theoretical and clinical advances with regard to attentional bias, the underlyin...

The present study aimed at testing the general assumption that virtual reality can enhance the experience of exercising. More specifically, we tested the effects of sensory input (music and video feedback) during physical training on performance, enjoyment, and attentional focus by means of a computerized ergometer coupled with VR software. Twelve university students participated in the study. ...

Attentional selectivity—the capacity to focus on task-relevant events and ignore effectively task-irrelevant events—is a core feature of all efficient information processing. In order to be maximally efficient, attention must be flexible so that it can be responsive to unexpected and potentially significant events outside the focus of attention. Flexibility is achieved by having a degree of pro...