COVERT ORIENTING
Covert orienting is a type of orienting response, or a reflexive reaction to certain stimuli. It is a physiological process that occurs in response to a sudden change in the environment and is generally outside of conscious control. Covert orienting is characterized by an increase in attention to the source of the stimulus and a decrease in reaction time to subsequent stimuli. This phenomenon has been studied in the context of both visual and auditory processing and has been found to be a common aspect of human behavior.
The term “covert orienting” was first coined by Posner and Cohen (1984). They conducted an experiment with 24 participants to study the effect of an unexpected stimulus on attention. The participants were asked to perform a visual detection task while an unexpected auditory cue was presented. The results showed that the participants’ reaction times to subsequent stimuli were significantly faster when the unexpected auditory cue was present, indicating a strong covert orienting response.
Since then, numerous studies have investigated covert orienting in both the visual and auditory domains. These studies have generally found that the presence of a novel stimulus causes an increase in attention to the source of the stimulus and a decrease in reaction time to subsequent stimuli. For example, Kagan and Sperling (1994) found that covert orienting in the auditory domain is associated with an increase in the amplitude of the P3 component of the event-related potential. This indicates that the attentional resources of the participant are shifted towards the source of the stimulus.
In addition to its role in attentional processing, covert orienting has also been linked to learning and memory. For example, Wang, et al. (2016) found that covert orienting in the visual domain was associated with improved memory in a recognition task. This suggests that the orienting response may act as a mechanism for focusing attention on important information, which is then stored in memory for later retrieval.
Overall, covert orienting is an important phenomenon that has been studied extensively in both the visual and auditory domains. It is characterized by an increase in attention to the source of the stimulus and a decrease in reaction time to subsequent stimuli, suggesting that it is an important aspect of attentional processing. Furthermore, covert orienting has also been linked to learning and memory, indicating its importance for human cognition.
References
Kagan, A., & Sperling, A. (1994). The P3 component of the event-related potential: Its sensitivity to the temporal dynamics of the stimulus onset. Psychophysiology, 31(1), 63-73.
Posner, M. I., & Cohen, Y. (1984). Components of visual orienting. In H. Bouma & D. G. Bouwhuis (Eds.), Attention and Performance X (pp. 531–556). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Wang, Y., Liu, Y., Hu, Y., Wang, J., & Zhou, X. (2016). Visually-induced covert orienting enhances subsequent memory performance. Memory and Cognition, 44(3), 441-452.