Daryl E Wilson

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Queen's University

We present a novel multimodal dataset for Cognitive Load Assessment in REal-time (CLARE). The dataset contains physiological and Gaze data from 24 participants with self-reported cognitive load scores as ground-truth labels. The dataset includes four modalities: Electrocardiography (ECG), Electrodermal Activity (EDA), Electroencephalogram (EEG), an...

Background In resuscitation medicine, effectively managing cognitive load in high-stakes environments has important implications for education and expertise development. There exists the potential to tailor educational experiences to an individual’s cognitive processes via real-time physiologic measurement of cognitive load in simulation environmen...

Attribute amnesia (AA) describes a phenomenon whereby observers fail a surprise memory test which asks them to report an attribute they had just attended and used to fulfil a task goal. This finding has cast doubt on the prominent theory that attention results in encoding into working memory (WM), to which two competing explanations have been propo...

Attribute amnesia (AA) describes a phenomenon whereby observers fail a surprise memory test which asks them to report an attribute they had just attended and used to fulfil a task goal. This finding has cast doubt on the prominent theory that attention results in encoding into working memory (WM), to which two competing explanations have been propo...

Despite the substantial evidence highlighting the role of selective rehearsal in item-method directed forgetting, recent work has suggested that forgetting may occur as a function of an active inhibitory mechanism that is more effortful than elaborative rehearsal processes. In the present work, we test this hypothesis by implementing a double-item...

Despite the substantial evidence highlighting the role of selective rehearsal in item-method directed forgetting, recent work has suggested that forgetting may occur as a function of an active inhibitory mechanism that is more effortful than elaborative rehearsal processes. In the present work, we test this hypothesis by implementing a double-item...

Common-onset masking (COM) refers to a methodology where a mask can impair awareness of an object if the mask’s offset is delayed relative to the offset of the object. This method has classically been used to understand how discontinuities in visual input lead to the discrete removal of object representations before they reach conscious awareness....

Visual working memory (VWM) plays a central role in visual cognition, and current work suggests that there is a special state in VWM for items that are the goal of visual searches. However, whether the quality of memory for target templates differs from memory for other items in VWM is currently unknown. In this study, we measured the precision and...

In this article, we demonstrate limitations of accessibility of information in visual working memory (VWM). Recently, cued-recall has been used to estimate the fidelity of information in VWM, where the feature of a cued object is reproduced from memory (Bays, Catalao, & Husain, 2009; Wilken & Ma, 2004; Zhang & Luck, 2008). Response error in these t...

In visual search, there is a confirmation bias such that attention is biased towards stimuli that match a target template, which has been attributed to covert costs of updating the templates that guide search (Rajsic, Wilson, & Pratt, 2015). In order to provide direct evidence for this speculation, the present study increased the cost of inspection...

An emerging framework suggests that visual working memory (WM) representations rely on the same representational resources as those used to process external visual input. Kiyonaga and Egner (2014) provided support for this claim by demonstrating with a modified WM Stroop task that an irrelevant color word held in WM produces the same Stroop interfe...

In visual search, attention is biased towards stimuli that confirm a target's presence. Although advantageous in present/absent target searches, we have shown that search can be arbitrarily biased towards one of two target stimuli, indicating a confirmation bias for the target conjunction framed as the search template. This conclusion, however, ass...

In a series of experiments, we investigated the ubiquity of confirmation bias in cognition by measuring whether visual selection is prioritized for information that would confirm a proposition about a visual display. We show that attention is preferentially deployed to stimuli matching a target template, even when alternate strategies would reduce...

Object-substitution masking (OSM) is a unique paradigm for the examination of object updating processes. However, existing models of OSM are underspecified with respect to the impact of object updating on the quality of target representations. Using two paradigms of OSM combined with a mixture model analysis we examine the impact of post-perceptual...

In a series of experiments, we investigated the ubiquity of confirmation bias in cognition by measuring whether visual selection is prioritized for information that would confirm a proposition about a visual display. We show that attention is preferentially deployed to stimuli matching a target template, even when alternate strategies would reduce...

Object substitution masking (OSM) describes a decrease in the ability to accurately report the identity of an object (the target) when a surrounding four-dot mask (4DM) remains on the screen after the offset of the target. Current theories propose that OSM results from the visual system updating the initial target plus mask representation in favor...

Research has demonstrated that, despite difficulties in multiple domains, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show a lack of awareness of these difficulties. A misunderstanding of poor competencies may make it difficult for individuals to adjust their behaviour in accordance with feedback and may lead to greater impairments over time. Thi...

Models of visual working memory (VWM) have benefitted greatly from the use of the delayed-matching paradigm. However, in this task, the ability to recall a probed feature is confounded with the ability to maintain the proper binding between the feature that is to be reported and the feature (typically location) that is used to cue a particular item...

In this study we tested whether or not confirmation bias, a well-known decision-making bias consisting of a tendency to selectively search for and evaluate information expected to confirm a focal hypothesis, can occur in visual search. Participants completed visual searches for a target letter, and were asked to make one response when the target le...

The near exclusive use of forced choice tasks in object-substitution masking (OSM) paradigms has restricted their use to identifying coarse changes in target processing. To resolve this limitation the present study combines OSM paradigms with a delayed report paradigm from the working memory literature (Wilken & Ma, 2004; Zhang & Luck, 2007). This...

Background: Executive functioning (EF) is a set of higher order cognitive processes that involve inhibition, cognitive shifting, and working memory. A connection between executive functioning and academic achievement has been identified in typically developing (TD) adolescents. The relationship of EF with academic achievement is relevant to clinica...

Background: Research has demonstrated that, despite problems in multiple domains, children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) show a lack of awareness of their difficulties. Previous research on the self-perceptions of children with ASD has focused primarily on examining perceptions of their autism-related traits by utilizing discrepancy analyses...

The present study used a target-target procedure to examine the extent to which perceptual and response factors contribute to inhibition of return (IOR) in a visual discrimination task. When the target was perceptually identical to the previous target and the required response was the same, facilitation was observed for both standard and long-term...

Using a variant of the multiple object tracking paradigm, Alvarez and Cavanagh (2005) showed that as the task became more demanding, tracking performance was significantly more accurate when targets were distributed between the left and right hemifields compared to when they were presented within a single hemifield. Based on this result, they propo...

In studies of change detection, observers’ ability to detect changes to an item in a display declines as set size increases. While the bulk of research has investigated the role of encoding and storage limits in change detection performance, less attention has been given to the role of comparison limits; that is, limitations on the rate or number o...

The conditions of everyday life are such that people often hear speech that has been degraded (e.g., by background noise or electronic transmission) or when they are distracted by other tasks. However, it remains unclear what role attention plays in processing speech that is difficult to understand. In the current study, we used functional magnetic...

Previous research has shown that presentation of a peripheral, irrelevant visual stimulus initially attracts attention to that location. However, following this initial reflexive capture of attention, attention is then biased away from that location—a phenomenon termed inhibition of return (IOR). Researchers debate the extent to which motor conflic...

The current study evaluated the theory that attention boosts perceived contrast (Carrasco, Ling, & Read, 2004) by employing a novel measure of contrast: gender perception of ambiguous faces. Given that the apparent gender of a face has been shown to be related to contrast (Russell, 2009), we sought to use gender perception as a measure of whether p...

When performing a visual search the entire visual array is typically considered relevant, and all of it must be included in search parameters. There is evidence however, that people are capable of narrowing attention to isolated spatial areas and/or visual features when those features are task relevant. In the present study we examined these two se...

Background / Purpose: We investigated the effects of top-down and bottom-up processes on visual search by examining three questions: What is the relative effectiveness of prioritizing spatial vs. featural characteristics?What effect does the prioritization of multiple targets have on search performance? When a salient distractor shares relevant f...

Lavie and Tsal (1994) proposed that spare attentional capacity is allocated involuntarily to the processing of irrelevant stimuli, thereby enabling interference. Under this view, when task demands increase, spare capacity should decrease and distractor interference should decrease. In support, Lavie and Cox (1997) found that increasing perceptual l...

Visual attention selects task-relevant information from scenes to help achieve behavioral goals. Attention can be deployed within multiple domains to select specific spatial locations, features, or objects. Recent evidence has shown that voluntary shifts of attention in multiple domains are consistently associated with transient increases in cortic...

A growing body of research has shown that spatial attention alters stimulus appearance on a number of dimensions including contrast (Carrasco, Ling, & Read, 2004), spatial resolution (Gobell & Carrasco, 2005), and size (Anton-Erxleben, Henrich, & Treue, 2007). Here we explored whether feature-based attention would also influence perceived spatial r...

In a typical attentional cueing paradigm, irrelevant peripheral cues produce early facilitation (fast responses) followed by later inhibition (slow responses) to cued locations. Here we examine whether cues not only influence the speed with which responses are produced, but impact or bias which location is ultimately selected as requiring a respons...

We present three experiments in which we investigate whether the recently reported interactions between central cues (e.g., arrows) and reflexive attention are attributable to the overlearned spatial properties of certain central cues. In the first two experiments, a nonpredictive cue with arbitrary spatial properties (a color patch) is presented p...

While there is now general agreement that memory gives rise to both conscious and unconscious influences, there remains disagreement concerning the process architecture underlying these distinct influences. Do they arise from independent underlying systems (e.g., Jacoby, 1991) or from systems that are interactive (e.g., Joordens & Merikle, 1993)? I...

Lavie (1995) proposed a load account of selective attention, which holds that spare capacity is involuntarily allocated to the processing of irrelevant stimuli. In support of this account, Lavie and Cox (1997) combined a letter search task with a flanker task and found that increasing load (search set size) resulted in decreased interference from a...

Three experiments are reported in which we investigate whether the recently reported interactions between central cues (e.g., arrows) and reflexive attention are attributable to the overlearned spatial properties of certain central cues. In all three experiments, a nonpredictive cue with arbitrary spatial properties (a colour patch) is presented pr...

In a typical attentional cueing paradigm, irrelevant peripheral cues produce early facilitation (fast responses) followed by later inhibition (slow responses) to cued locations. Here we examine whether cues not only influence the speed with which responses are produced, but also impact or bias which location is ultimately selected as requiring a re...

Using a speeded retrieval procedure, we investigated time-of-day effects in automatic and controlled retrieval. Morning-type adults were tested at either peak (early morning) or off-peak (late afternoon) times on a speeded implicit (Experiment 1) or explicit (Experiment 2) stem completion task. In Experiment 1, retrieval strategies were identified...

It has generally been accepted that attention is inhibited from returning to previously attended locations, and that this inhibition of return (IOR) lasts just two or three seconds. Recently, Tipper, Grison, and Kessler (2003) showed that IOR can occur over much longer periods of time provided the inhibition is encoded with a context-rich event. He...

Using the stem completion task, we compared estimates of automatic retrieval from an implicit memory task, the process dissociation procedure, and the speeded response procedure. Two standard manipulations were employed. In Experiment 1, a depth of processing effect was found on automatic retrieval using the speeded response procedure although this...

Results from implicit memory (IM) tasks suggest that automatic retrieval remains stable or decreases over time. In contrast, results from the process dissociation approach (PDA) suggest that automatic retrieval may actually increase over time. One explanation for these discrepant results is that performance on IM tasks is contaminated by controlled...

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural substrates involved in haptic processing of texture, shape, and hardness. Subjects performed haptic classification tasks on a set of 27 silicone objects having parametrically defined shape, texture, and hardness. The objects were ellipsoids of revolution in which the rat...

A variety of procedures have been used to assess automatic retrieval effects on memory, including implicit memory tests and the process dissociation approach. Theoretical concerns with each are summarized prior to describing a procedure for evaluating automatic retrieval that is based on retrieval speed. Specifically, in a speeded implicit task, pa...

Results from standard implicit memory tests suggest that automatic retrieval decreases or remains relatively stable over time, whereas results from the process dissociation procedure (PDP) suggest that automatic retrieval may actually increase over time. Advocates of the PDP view, have suggested that this incongruity results from contamination of t...