Attention assolves a fundamental function in cognition, allowing the deployment of limited processing resources on items that are deemed as relevant. At the same time attention allows resources to be withdrawn from other, non relevant competing material, and thus prevents distraction.
It is often said that attention acts as a filter between the variety of inputs reaching our cognitive system both from external (through the senses) and internal (i.e., homeostasis and internal goals) environments, and higher order analysis, which eventually leads to the conscious processing of these stimuli.
The impact of attention on stimulus processing can be dramatic: stimuli that fail to be attentionally inspected can go largely unnoticed, and this is why, for instance, we typically can’t help falling into the tricks of skilled magicians.
Our attentional system relies on a number of control mechanisms, which guide the deployment of attention towards stimuli that are particularly worthy. Some of these mechanisms are driven by built-in system properties, and prioritize stimuli that are particularly intense and unexpected (i.e., a loud sound, a bright light, a painful puncture). Other mechanisms are influenced by volition, and prioritize items in the environment that match the current behavioral goals (i.e., while looking for a red pencil on a desk, our attention will be easily captured by all the red items in our visual field).
Recent evidence has shown that attention can also become subject to habit, and be powerfully and implicitly controlled by learned contingencies.
As a matter of fact, all efficient processing systems share a crucial common feature: they can learn, and adapt to change. Adaptation allows fine-tuning to the properties of the surrounding environment, maximizing outcomes and increasing fitness.
Attentional mechanisms are adaptive in that they are influenced by past experience, and can learn to process more efficiently stimuli that have led to rewarding consequences. Unfortunately, such exceptional flexibility can also underlie maladaptive forms of plasticity, so that for instance in addictive disorders attention becomes easily attracted by stimuli associated with the effects of a given substance or behavior, and trigger craving or distress.
Given the crucial role of attention in mediating behavior and cognition, I am interested in unveiling the mechanisms by which such experience-based attentional learning occurs.