Li Zhuyang, Chen Jie, Zhang Qiaoming, Liu Lu
School of Educational Science, Ludong University, No. 186 Hongqi Middle Road, Yantai, 264025, Shandong, China.
Collaborative Innovation Center for the Mental Health of Youth From the Era of Conversion of New and Old Kinetic Energy Along the Yellow River Basin, Ludong University, Yantai, Shandong, China.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2025 Feb;32(1):352-362. doi: 10.3758/s13423-024-02542-z. Epub 2024 Jul 19.
There is an ongoing debate between the sensory enhancement account and the attentional prioritization account concerning the mechanism underlying object-based attention. This debate remains unresolved because of the predominant use of geometric objects in previous studies, which made it difficult to experimentally dissociate the two accounts due to the prominent boundaries of these objects. The current study investigated the mechanism underlying semantic object-based attention by utilizing Chinese two-character words with different word frequencies and the event-related potentials (ERPs) technique to elucidate the ongoing debate. The behavioral results showed that the semantic object effect was observed only in the high-frequency condition. The ERP results revealed the following: (1) the N1 component was larger for the high-frequency condition compared with the low-frequency condition. However, there was no significant difference in amplitude between the N1 component elicited by invalid same object locations and invalid different object locations, irrespective of whether it occurred in high- or low-frequency conditions. (2) The P3 component elicited by invalid same object locations was larger than that elicited by invalid different object locations only in the high-frequency condition. (3) The N400 amplitude elicited by invalid same object locations was smaller than that elicited by invalid different object locations only in the high-frequency condition. These results suggest that in the absence of obvious object boundaries, the production of object-based attention is primarily driven by search strategies. Attentional prioritization, rather than sensory enhancement, is the dominant mechanism underlying object-based attention.
关于基于客体的注意背后的机制，感觉增强理论和注意优先理论之间正在进行一场争论。由于先前研究中主要使用几何客体，这场争论仍未得到解决，因为这些客体突出的边界使得在实验中难以区分这两种理论。当前的研究通过利用具有不同词频的中文双字词和事件相关电位（ERP）技术来探讨基于语义客体的注意背后的机制，以阐明这场正在进行的争论。行为结果表明，语义客体效应仅在高频条件下被观察到。ERP结果显示如下：（1）高频条件下的N1成分比低频条件下的更大。然而，无效的相同客体位置和无效的不同客体位置所引发的N1成分在幅度上没有显著差异，无论其发生在高频还是低频条件下。（2）仅在高频条件下，无效的相同客体位置所引发的P3成分比无效的不同客体位置所引发的更大。（3）仅在高频条件下，无效的相同客体位置所引发的N400幅度比无效的不同客体位置所引发的更小。这些结果表明，在没有明显客体边界的情况下，基于客体的注意的产生主要由搜索策略驱动。注意优先而非感觉增强是基于客体的注意背后的主导机制。
