One of the key human cognitive capabilities is to extract regularities from the environment to guide behavior. An attentional set for a target feature can be established through statistical learning of probabilistic target associations; however, whether an array of attentional sets of predictive target features can be established during intentional learning, and how they might guide attention, is not known yet. To address these questions, we had human observers perform a visual search task where we instructed them to try to use color to find their target shape. We structured the task with a fine-grained statistical regularity such that the target shapes appeared in different colors with five unique probabilities (i.e., 33%, 26%, 19%, 12%, and 5%) while we recorded their electroencephalogram. Observers rapidly learned these regularities, evidenced by being faster to report targets that appeared in higher probability colors. These effects were not due to unequal sample sizes or simple feature priming. More importantly, equivalent speeding across a set of high-probability colors suggests that the brain was driving attention to multiple targets simultaneously. Our electrophysiological results showed larger amplitude N2 posterior contralateral component, indexing perceptual attention, and late positive complex (LPC) component, indexing postperceptual processes, for targets paired with high-probability colors. These electrophysiological data suggest that the learned attentional sets change both perceptual selection and how postperceptual decisions are made. In sum, we show that multiple attentional sets can be established during intentional learning that accompanies general task acquisition and that these attentional sets can simultaneously guide attention by enhancing both perceptual attention and postperceptual processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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有意学习建立多个同时引导注意力的注意力集。


人类的关键认知能力之一是从环境中提取规律来指导行为。可以通过概率目标关联的统计学习来建立目标特征的注意力集；然而，在有意学习期间是否可以建立一系列预测目标特征的注意力集，以及它们如何引导注意力，目前尚不清楚。为了解决这些问题，我们让人类观察者执行视觉搜索任务，指导他们尝试使用颜色来找到目标形状。我们采用细粒度的统计规律来构建任务，以便在记录目标形状的脑电图时，目标形状以五种独特的概率（即 33%、26%、19%、12% 和 5%）以不同的颜色出现。观察者很快就了解了这些规律，这可以通过更快地报告以更高概率颜色出现的目标来证明。这些影响并不是由于样本大小不均或简单的特征启动造成的。更重要的是，在一组高概率颜色上的等效速度表明大脑同时将注意力集中在多个目标上。我们的电生理学结果显示，对于与高概率颜色配对的目标，振幅较大的 N2 后对侧成分（指示知觉注意力）和晚期正复合体（LPC）成分（指示知觉后过程）。这些电生理学数据表明，习得的注意力集会改变知觉选择以及知觉后决策的制定方式。 总之，我们表明，在伴随一般任务习得的有意学习过程中可以建立多个注意力集，并且这些注意力集可以通过增强感知注意力和感知后过程来同时引导注意力。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。