Relevance and Salience During Attention Task

In this line of research, the researchers are examining the influence of relevance of a salient item on task performance, depending on overall task set.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Healthy
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Relevance (Likelihood Salient Item is Target)

Detailed Description

When finding a target item during visual search (looking for a pencil), a salient item can capture attention (your phone flashing from a message). Typical attention studies only examine salient items when shown as distractor during search, to ensure any attention to the items are driven by salience alone. However, the impact of salience may interact with the relevance of the item for the search task (e.g. how likely the salient item is to be the target). Here, the researchers investigate these interactions in a basic science study when participants perform an easy task or a difficult search task.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 117
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States, 18015
      • Lehigh University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 99 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• normal or corrected to normal visual acuity, normal color vision

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

5

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 0% Relevance; 0% chance of the salient item being the target during visual search task.	Behavioral: Relevance (Likelihood Salient Item is Target); The proportion of trials, when the salient visual item is present in the array, where the salient item is the search target.
Experimental: 25% Relevance; 25% chance of the salient item being the target during visual search task.	Behavioral: Relevance (Likelihood Salient Item is Target); The proportion of trials, when the salient visual item is present in the array, where the salient item is the search target.
Experimental: 50% Relevance; 50% chance of the salient item being the target during visual search task.	Behavioral: Relevance (Likelihood Salient Item is Target); The proportion of trials, when the salient visual item is present in the array, where the salient item is the search target.
Experimental: 75% Relevance; 75% chance of the salient item being the target during visual search task.	Behavioral: Relevance (Likelihood Salient Item is Target); The proportion of trials, when the salient visual item is present in the array, where the salient item is the search target.
Experimental: 100% Relevance; 100% chance of the salient item being the target during visual search task.	Behavioral: Relevance (Likelihood Salient Item is Target); The proportion of trials, when the salient visual item is present in the array, where the salient item is the search target.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Button Press Reaction Time	Speed to respond correctly to the target- after participant finds the target shape on a computer screen, they press a button to indicate what shape they see	During Testing (single day)
Button Press Accuracy	Accuracy of responses to target item- the researchers will measure whether the participants presses the correct button which corresponds to the target shape presented on the computer screen or the incorrect button	During Testing (single day)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Lehigh University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 15, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 28, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): October 28, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 13, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 13, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): March 24, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): February 2, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 1, 2024
• Last Verified: February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: attention; visual search
• Other Study ID Numbers: 5R15EY030247-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: The researchers plan to share anonymized subject data on Open Science Framework.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Upon publication.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Open Science Framework, Internet access.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No