Name: Cody A. Mashburn 

Master’s Thesis Proposal Meeting

Date: Friday, April 23, 2021

Time: 11:00am 

Location: https://bluejeans.com/6301320538/

Advisor: Dr. Randall W. Engle, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Thesis Committee Members:

Randall W. Engle, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

James S. Roberts, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Rick P. Thomas, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Title: Are prosaccades always automatic?: Validating the antisaccade task as a measure of controlled attention

Abstract: Attention control is a central topic within mainstream cognitive psychology, with numerous well-replicated experimental demonstrations, notably the Stroop and flanker effects. Furthermore, individual differences in attention control have been proposed to underlie variation on complex cognitive constructs such as working memory and fluid intelligence. Support for this notion has been equivocal in the broader literature due to measurement issues associated with experimental effects in attention control tasks, including low test-retest reliability, weak experimental manipulations, and possible individual differences in speed-accuracy tradeoffs (Draheim et al., 2019; Rouder & Haaf, 2019). A notable exception has been the antisaccade task, in which participants attempt to avoid initiating a stimulus-driven eye-movement toward a peripheral distractor (i.e., a prosaccade) and to instead initiate a goal-driven eye-movement in the opposite direction (i.e., an antisaccade). Antisaccade accuracy rates typically show good internal consistency and test-retest reliability, good criterion-related validity, and have been a lynch-pin for researchers interested in individual differences in attention control (Rey-Mermet et al., 2018). Some investigations may threaten the antisaccade's status as a measure of attention control. In an attempt to control for individual differences in processing speed, Rey-Mermet and colleagues (2018; 2019) conditioned antisaccade target presentation rates on the speed with which participants could execute a prosaccade, which was determined using an adaptive procedure (Kaernbach, 1991). Doing so eliminated the relationship between antisaccade accuracy and criterion constructs. However, the measurement consequences of their adaptive procedure have not been explored and could have introduced control demands into the normally stimulus-driven prosaccades. The proposed project investigates this possibility, exploring the relationships between prosaccade speed (measured adaptively and non-adaptively), antisaccade accuracy, and measures of working memory capacity and fluid intelligence. Pupillometry will be also be used as a source of convergent validity.