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Related Experiment Video

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The Adventures of Fundi Intervention Based on the Cognitive and Emotional Processing in Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder Patients
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The speed of free will.

Todd S Horowitz1, Jeremy M Wolfe, George A Alvarez

  • 1Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. toddh@search.bwh.harvard.edu

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)
|March 4, 2009
PubMed
Summary

Voluntary shifts of attention take longer (200-300 ms) than task-driven shifts (35-100 ms). This suggests that conscious decision-making, or "free will," requires more time for attentional control.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Human Attention

Background:

  • Understanding the temporal dynamics of attention is crucial for cognitive science.
  • Distinguishing between voluntary and involuntary attentional shifts provides insights into cognitive control mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether voluntary and task-driven shifts of attention share the same time course.
  • To quantify the time required for voluntary attentional shifts.
  • To compare the speed of voluntary versus task-driven attention.

Main Methods:

  • Development of novel visual search tasks requiring sequential voluntary attentional shifts.
  • Inclusion of control conditions with similar tasks but no required attentional order.
  • Measurement of response accuracy contingent on correct attentional deployment.

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Main Results:

  • Voluntary shifts of attention consistently required 200-300 ms across experiments.
  • Task-driven shifts of attention, in control conditions, were significantly faster, ranging from 35-100 ms.
  • A clear temporal dissociation was observed between the two types of attentional shifts.

Conclusions:

  • Voluntary attention shifts are significantly slower than task-driven shifts.
  • The extended time for voluntary shifts may reflect the cognitive processes associated with conscious intention or 'free will'.
  • These findings highlight distinct neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying different modes of attentional control.