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"Top-down" Does Not Mean "Voluntary".

Nicholas Gaspelin¹, Steven J Luck²

¹Department of Psychology, Binghamton University, State University of New York.

Journal of Cognition

|September 25, 2018

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Attention research requires clearer definitions of "top-down" and "bottom-up" control. Understanding selection history is crucial for advancing theories of visual attention and its mechanisms.

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Visual Attention Research

Background:

Ongoing debate exists regarding the interplay of top-down and bottom-up mechanisms in attention control.
Selection history has been proposed as a significant, yet underappreciated, factor in guiding visual attention.
Current research faces challenges due to ambiguous definitions of key attentional control terms.

Purpose of the Study:

To clarify the definitions of "top-down" and "bottom-up" attentional control mechanisms.
To address the conflation of "top-down" and "voluntary" control in existing literature.
To propose a path forward for resolving definitional ambiguities in attention capture research.

Main Methods:

Conceptual analysis of existing literature on attentional control.

Keywords:

Attention cognitive control visual perception visual search

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Examination of arguments regarding the roles of top-down, bottom-up, and selection history mechanisms.

Critique of the definitions and usage of terms in attention research.

Main Results:

The argument for limited top-down control conflates "top-down" with "voluntary" control.
Selection history, a form of top-down processing, is influenced by context, learning, and expectation.
Ambiguous terminology hinders progress in understanding attentional control mechanisms.

Conclusions:

Resolving definitional disputes is essential for advancing the scientific understanding of attention.
A consensus on the meaning of terms like "top-down" and "bottom-up" is necessary for future research.
Clearer definitions will facilitate a more accurate understanding of how visual attention is controlled.