Abegg Mathias, Manoach Dara S, Barton Jason J S
University Eye Hospital, Department of Ophthalmology, Inselspital, University of Bern, Switzerland.
Vision Res. 2011 Jan;51(1):215-21. doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2010.11.006. Epub 2010 Nov 17.
Foreknowledge about the demands of an upcoming trial may be exploited to optimize behavioural responses. In the current study we systematically investigated the benefits of partial foreknowledge--that is, when some but not all aspects of a future trial are known in advance. For this we used an ocular motor paradigm with horizontal prosaccades and antisaccades. Predictable sequences were used to create three partial foreknowledge conditions: one with foreknowledge about the stimulus location only, one with foreknowledge about the task set only, and one with foreknowledge about the direction of the required response only. These were contrasted with a condition of no-foreknowledge and a condition of complete foreknowledge about all three parameters. The results showed that the three types of foreknowledge affected saccadic efficiency differently. While foreknowledge about stimulus-location had no effect on efficiency, task foreknowledge had some effect and response-foreknowledge was as effective as complete foreknowledge. Foreknowledge effects on switch costs followed a similar pattern in general, but were not specific for switching of the trial attribute for which foreknowledge was available. We conclude that partial foreknowledge has a differential effect on efficiency, most consistent with preparatory activation of a motor schema in advance of the stimulus, with consequent benefits for both switched and repeated trials.
关于即将到来的试验要求的预知信息可被利用来优化行为反应。在当前研究中，我们系统地研究了部分预知的益处——也就是说，当未来试验的某些而非所有方面提前已知时的情况。为此，我们使用了一种眼动范式，包括水平前瞻扫视和反扫视。可预测序列被用于创建三种部分预知条件：一种仅对刺激位置有预知，一种仅对任务集有预知，还有一种仅对所需反应的方向有预知。这些条件与无预知条件以及对所有三个参数都有完全预知的条件进行了对比。结果表明，这三种预知类型对扫视效率的影响各不相同。虽然对刺激位置的预知对效率没有影响，但对任务的预知有一定影响，而对反应的预知与完全预知一样有效。预知对转换成本的影响总体上遵循类似模式，但并非特定于对有预知的试验属性进行转换。我们得出结论，部分预知对效率有不同影响，这与在刺激之前提前激活运动模式最为一致，从而对转换试验和重复试验都有好处。
