The use of video conferencing tools has become increasingly common recently. The visual displays in these tools are highly complex, being composed of multiple faces with varying image quality and lighting conditions. On top of this, users have the ability to choose their own backgrounds. Some choose simple artificial backgrounds, some appear in…

Joint attention (JA) has been found to correlate with many developmental outcomes. However, little is known about how naturalistic JA is established and develops during early infancy. In this study, free-flowing tabletop toy play between infants at 5 and 15 months and their mothers (N = 48 dyads; 65% white) was observed to (1) examine changes in…

Migrant children are more likely to experience challenging circumstances and exhibit greater emotional and behavioral difficulties than native children. Nowadays, mindfulness training (MT) has been employed as a means of enhancing health-related outcomes in children and adolescents, with promising results. The present study employed a randomized…

Mind wandering, where attention drifts from the here-and-now to internal thoughts, is often linked to decreased educational performance. However, its impact on children remains largely unexplored. This study introduces and evaluates a method for measuring mind wandering in classroom environments. A sample of 126 8-9-year-olds participated in a…

A simple-rule learning trap occurs when people show suboptimal category learning due to insufficient exploration of the learning environment. By combining experimental methods and computational modeling, the current study investigated the impact of two key factors believed to play essential roles in the development of a simple-rule learning trap:…

Attention is biased toward features aligning with task goals and stimuli previously allocated attentional priority (selection history). The relationship between selection history and the strategic control of attention has scarcely been explored. In the present study, we utilized a modified version of the Adaptive Choice Visual Search (ACVS) task…

In today's digital world, understanding refresh-rate implications on visual perception and energy consumption is crucial. While high refresh rates enhance motion perception and user experience, they also increase energy usage, prompting the need for adaptive solutions like variable refresh rates. This study examines whether users notice or are…

Humans usually adjust their attentional mode to tackle the challenges posed by environmental inputs. Depending on the uncertainty level, different attentional strategies may be adopted. As people face increasingly complicated daily situations--e.g., driving a car or chatting online--where intervals between significant events do not necessarily…

In a seminal paper, Moher (Psychol Sci 31(1):31-42, 10.1177/0956797619886809, 2020) reported that a salient distractor induced observers to quit the search early when the target was absent and increased the error rate when the target was present. This early quitting effect (EQE) was considered to impact real-world target detection. We were…

A 3-year follow-up survey was sent to speech-language pathologists who completed a mindfulness program as part of their graduate studies. Findings indicated that 53% of the speech-language pathologists who responded continued to practice learned mindfulness skills in their personal lives as well as incorporating them in their therapy plans.

A wandering mind is not always a creative mind. Anecdotes about ideas spontaneously entering awareness during walks, showers, and other off-task activities are plenty. The science behind it, however, is still inconclusive. Creativity might result from how thought context--whether thoughts are on-task or off-task--relates to thought dynamics--how…

We examined how prior experience encountering targets affected attention allocation and event-based prospective memory. Participants performed four color match task blocks with a difficult, but specified prospective memory task (Experiment 1) or an easier, but unspecified prospective memory task (Experiment 2). Participants were instructed to…

Over the past three decades, attention restoration theory (ART) has been widely applied in restorative environments research, providing a framework for examining human-environment relationships. Much of the research on ART has emphasized the role of the environment in restorative experiences and the recovery of attentional fatigue. However, less…

The relationship between focus of attention instructions and motor performance is a topic of significant research interest. It is widely accepted that attending to the mechanics of the movement when performing a motor task (internal focus) yields poorer performance and less effective movement organization than attending to the movement outcome…

Although numerous studies have shown that external focus (EF) enhances sports performance more than internal focus (IF) does, some findings suggest that preference (liking and usefulness) and familiarity with instructions can act as moderators. However, little is known regarding the concept of preference or familiarity in the context of motor…