Nos complace anunciar que la charla ‘Pío Tudela’ del próximo congreso EPS/SEPEX (Oxford, 8-10 Julio) correrá a cargo del profesor Juan Lupiáñez. Los asistentes podréis disfrutar de la conferencia el Sábado 9 de Julio a las 17.30. Os adjuntamos el título y resumen de la charla.

On the nature of voluntary and involuntary orienting of attention

Since Williams James, and through the influential work of Michael Posner, understanding how our interaction with the world is modulated or controlled by attention is a key question in Psychology. An important aspect of this problem concerns the distinction between top-down (endogenous or voluntary) and stimulus driven (exogenous or involuntary) control of attention. I will describe some of the research we have carried out during the past years to address this question. I will present evidence showing that exogenous and endogenous attention, rather than being two forms of controlling the same attentional mechanism, are two different mechanisms, which modulate performance in a qualitatively different manner. I will characterize these mechanisms and the way they compete for controlling behavior, and will discuss how both voluntary and involuntary attention are necessary and solve the problem of focusing on goals and controlling distraction while leaving the system ready to cope with new and unexpected information.