Prioritisation of Attention Allocation in a Static Multiple Target Search Task: Experiment 2

The reward effect refers to a cognitive bias towards detecting more quickly and efficiently targets which upon accurate detection, they received a higher reward versus targets which upon accurate detection receive a lower reward. This experiment aims to provide support for this effect using real-life stimuli in a Multiple Target Search (MTS) task.

Participants will be asked to complete one testing session online, which lasts approximately 20 minutes. The experiment consists of 20 practise trials and 300 experimental trials. Participants will have to complete a Multiple Target Search (MTS) task, where they will be presented with 8 different items of real-life stimuli and they will have to detect targets amongst distractors as quickly as possible (i.e. reaction time task). Out of the 300 trials, 150 will be target-present and 150 will be target-absent trials. For the duration of the whole experiment, participants will have to mentally hold representations of three different possible targets with three different levels of reward: high, middle and low reward targets. In target-present trials, only 1 target (out of the three possible target templates) will be present amongst 7 distractors and participants will have to give a target present response. When participants detect both accurately and quickly enough a high reward target they will receive a reward of 7 points, a middle reward target 2 points and a low reward target 1 point. In target-absent trials, only distractors will be present with no target, and participants will have to give a target-absent response. The primary investigation of interest is the RT difference in participants’ target-present responses across the three different levels of reward. It is expected that, participants will be better and quicker at detecting high versus low reward targets.

奖赏效应是指一种认知偏差，即个体在识别目标时，对能够带来更高奖赏的目标比对带来较低奖赏的目标反应更为迅速和高效。本实验旨在通过在多目标搜索（MTS）任务中使用现实生活中的刺激物来为这一效应提供支持。实验参与者将被要求完成一次在线测试，时长约为20分钟。实验包括20次练习试和300次实验试。参与者需要完成多目标搜索（MTS）任务，他们将接触到8种不同的现实刺激物，并需要在干扰物中尽可能快速地检测到目标（即反应时间任务）。在300次试验中，150次为存在目标试验，150次为目标不存在试验。在整个实验过程中，参与者需要心理上维持三种不同奖赏水平（高、中、低）的可能目标表征。在存在目标的试验中，仅有一种目标（从三种可能的目标模板中选取）将在7个干扰物中存在，参与者需给出目标存在的响应。当参与者准确且迅速地检测到高奖赏目标时，他们将获得7分，中奖赏目标2分，低奖赏目标1分。在目标不存在试验中，仅存在干扰物，没有目标，参与者需给出目标不存在的响应。主要的研究兴趣在于，参与者在对三种不同奖赏水平的目标存在响应中的反应时间差异。预期参与者将更擅长且更快地检测高奖赏目标与低奖赏目标。