Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 27, 2026
Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments
Published on: January 23, 2017
Morningness/eveningness and the synchrony effect for spatial attention
Jillian Dorrian1, Benjamin McLean2, Siobhan Banks1
1Brain and Body at Work Group, Centre for Sleep Research, University of South Australia, Level 7, Playford Building, City East Campus, Frome Road, Adelaide 5000, Australia.
Individual alertness influences spatial attention. This study found that morning-type individuals show a rightward attention shift when tested outside their peak alertness times, validating crowdsourced data collection.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Chronobiology
- Human Factors
Background:
- Decreased alertness is linked to a rightward shift in spatial attention.
- Individual alertness levels fluctuate and peak at different times (morningness/eveningness).
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how morningness/eveningness and time of testing affect spatial attention.
- To determine if attention shifts rightward at non-optimal testing times.
Main Methods:
- Utilized Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) for data collection from 530 participants.
- Administered demographic questions, the Horne & Östberg Morningness/Eveningness Scale, and a spatial attentional (landmark) task.
- Calculated response bias to quantify attentional bias (leftward vs. rightward).
Main Results:
- A significant interaction between morningness/eveningness and time of testing was observed (p<0.05).
- Morning-type individuals exhibited a relative rightward shift in attention during off-peak testing times.
- No significant shift was found for evening-type individuals.
Conclusions:
- Individual peak alertness times modulate spatial attention deployment.
- Crowdsourcing platforms like AMT are effective for collecting reliable research data.
- Findings support the role of chronotype in cognitive performance, specifically spatial attention.
More Related Videos
06:46Investigating the Deployment of Visual Attention Before Accurate and Averaging Saccades via Eye Tracking and Assessment of Visual Sensitivity
Published on: March 18, 2019
09:37Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control
Published on: July 5, 2015