Professeur de psychologie au Scripps College (Claremont, USA), Alan Hartley donnera deux séminaires à Besançon. Le premier (The Vanishing Interference in Dual Task Interference) aura lieu le 22 mai de 16h a 17h, le second (Attentional Function is Surprisingly Well-preserved in Old Age) le 26 mai de 11h a 12h. Ils se tiendront à l'UFR SLHS, salle de réunion du premier étage, dans le bâtiment A du site de l'Arsenal (place Saint Jacques).Alan Hartley effectue un séjour d'un mois en tant que professeur invité par la MSHE Ledoux dans le cadre de l'action Prise de décision et processus attentionnels, pilotée par André Didierjean au sein du pôle 5. Spécialiste mondialement reconnu, il effectue des recherches sur les liens entre le vieillissement cognitif et l'attention.
The Vanishing Interference in Dual-task Interference : When people attempt to do two things at the same time, there is massive interference when measured with reaction time (RT): Processing of the second task is delayed until critical aspects of the first task are completed. One view is that the blockage of the second task is an active, strategic choice involving executive attention; another is that the blockage is passive and structural. In a series of experiments, we have looked for evidence of the involvement of executive attention. We have largely failed to find it. I will describe a series of experiments using (1) subjective estimates of difficulty or reaction time, (2) electrodermal responses, and (3) pupil diameter in which we find little or no response to dual-task overlap, even though there is strong RT evidence of interference. The results are suggestive of a passive mechanism not involving executive attention. I will propose a neurophysiological mechanism to account for all of these results.
Attentional Function is Surprisingly Well-preserved in Old Age : The naïve view of human aging is that the older you become, the more poorly you perform on almost any task. I will review a body of evidence showing that this stereotype is incorrect, as least as far as attentional functioning is concerned. I will describe experiments on (1) the focus or spread of visual attention, (2) shifts in the attentional focus, (3) redirection of attention, (4) non-visual attention, and (5) shifts of attention from one line of processing to another. In each instance, I will point out evidence for preserved function.