Liv Merve Akca Abrahamsson

• Akca, Merve; Vuoskoski, Jonna Katariina; Laeng, Bruno & Bishop, Laura (2023). Recognition of brief sounds in rapid serial auditory presentation. PLOS ONE. ISSN 1932-6203. 18(4). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284396. Full text in Research Archive
• Akca, Merve; Bishop, Laura; Vuoskoski, Jonna Katariina & Laeng, Bruno (2022). Human voices escape the auditory attentional blink: Evidence from detections and pupil responses. Brain and Cognition. ISSN 0278-2626. 165. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2022.105928. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Attentional selection of a second target in a rapid stream of stimuli embedding two targets tends to be briefly impaired when two targets are presented in close temporal proximity, an effect known as an attentional blink (AB). Two target sounds (T1 and T2) were embedded in a rapid serial auditory presentation of environmental sounds with a short (Lag 3) or long lag (Lag 9). Participants were to first identify T1 (bell or sine tone) and then to detect T2 (present or absent). Individual stimuli had durations of either 30 or 90 ms, and were presented in streams of 20 sounds. The T2 varied in category: human voice, cello, or dog sound. Previous research has introduced pupillometry as a useful marker of the intensity of cognitive processing and attentional allocation in the visual AB paradigm. Results suggest that the interplay of stimulus factors is critical for target detection accuracy and provides support for the hypothesis that the human voice is the least likely to show an auditory AB (in the 90 ms condition). For the other stimuli, accuracy for T2 was significantly worse at Lag 3 than at Lag 9 in the 90 ms condition, suggesting the presence of an auditory AB. When AB occurred (at Lag 3), we observed smaller pupil dilations, time-locked to the onset of T2, compared to Lag 9, reflecting lower attentional processing when ’blinking’ during target detection. Taken together, these findings support the conclusion that human voices escape the AB and that the pupillary changes are consistent with the so-called T2 attentional deficit. In addition, we found some indication that salient stimuli like human voices could require a less intense allocation of attention, or noradrenergic potentiation, compared to other auditory stimuli.

• Akca, Merve; Laeng, Bruno & Godøy, Rolf Inge (2020). No Evidence for an Auditory Attentional Blink for Voices Regardless of Musical Expertise. Frontiers in Psychology. ISSN 1664-1078. 10. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02935. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background: Attending to goal-relevant information can leave us metaphorically “blind” or “deaf” to the next relevant information while searching among distracters. This temporal cost lasting for about a half a second on the human selective attention has been long explored using the attentional blink paradigm. Although there is evidence that certain visual stimuli relating to one’s area of expertise can be less susceptible to attentional blink effects, it remains unexplored whether the dynamics of temporal selective attention vary with expertise and objects types in the auditory modality. Methods: Using the auditory version of the attentional blink paradigm, the present study investigates whether certain auditory objects relating to musical and perceptual expertise could have an impact on the transient costs of selective attention. In this study, expert cellists and novice participants were asked to first identify a target sound, and then to detect instrumental timbres of cello or organ, or human voice as a second target in a rapid auditory stream. Results: The results showed moderate evidence against the attentional blink effect for voices independent of participants’ musical expertise. Experts outperformed novices in their overall accuracy levels of target identification and detection, reflecting a clear benefit of musical expertise. Importantly, the musicianship advantage disappeared when the human voices served as the second target in the stream. Discussion: The results are discussed in terms of stimulus salience, the advantage of voice processing, as well as perceptual and musical expertise in relation to attention and working memory performances.

• Akca, Merve (2018). Time course of selective attention for instrumental timbres and human voice. In Ziemke, Tom; Arvola, Mattias; Dahlbäck, Nils & Billing, Erik (Ed.), PROCEEDINGS OF THE 14TH SWEDISH COGNITIVE SCIENCE SOCIETY CONFERENCE. The University of Skövde. ISSN 978-91-983667-3-0. p. 10–11. doi: http:/www.swecog.se/conference/2018/Swecog-2018-Proceedings.pdf.

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• Liljeroth, Julie Lucie & Akca, Merve (2022). We can ignore many sounds, but not the human voice. [Internet]. Forskning.no. Show summary

  A limit in our attention means that we don’t detect every single sound. However, new research suggests that we almost always pay attention to the human voice.

• Akca, Merve (2022). Presentation and Summary of Ph.D. Project: Attending to Sounds in the Blink of an Eye.
• Akca, Merve (2022). Trial Lecture for Ph.D. disputation: Attention to sounds – theoretical frameworks and applied perspectives in music psychology .
• Akca, Merve; Bishop, Laura; Vuoskoski, Jonna Katariina & Laeng, Bruno (2022). Tracing the Temporal Limits of Auditory Information Processing with Pupillometry.
• Akca, Merve (2022). The Limits of Auditory Perception and Cognition in Humans: Detecting and Attending to Sounds .
• Akca, Merve (2020). Insan Sesi Ayrimi/Human Voice Distinction. Popular Science Turkey.
• Akca, Merve (2019). Auditory Attentional Blink and Expertise: Who Has the Advantage?
• Akca, Merve (2019). Auditory Attentional Blink and Expertise.
• Akca, Merve (2018). Time course of selective attention for instrumental timbres and human voice.
• Akca, Merve (2018). Retrieval-Induced Forgetting Effects in Retrospective and Prospective Memory in Normal Aging.
• Akca, Merve (2022). Attending to Sounds in the Blink of an Eye. Universitetet i Oslo. Show summary

  When we attend to something within a rapid sequence, the ‘eyes of attention’ appear to shut for a short period of time, limiting our information processing ability. This thesis details an investigation into the factors that could potentially modulate the limits of perception and attention to brief sounds over time. Due to a scarcity of research and unresolved debates, the temporal limits of perception and attentional selection in the auditory modality are not sufficiently understood. In a series of empirical studies, we tested whether these temporal limits can be modulated through various experimental manipulations and/or individual differences. These studies yielded a complex pattern of results which suggests that human voices can effectively overcome these limits. This is in line with the evolutionary and neuroscientific perspectives highlighting the importance of human voice perception for humans. However, this modulatory effect of sound category appears to vary depending on the duration that the sounds are presented for. The investigations of factors related to individual differences (i.e., musicality, working memory, and impulsivity) were not conclusive, at least within the paradigms employed here. In addition to the behavioural findings, pupillometry data shed light into the amount of mental effort linked with attending to brief sounds in time. The current work has contributed to, and is in line with, the recent direction of the empirical findings and theoretical accounts of temporal selective attention. It has also offered several directions for future research with important theoretical and societal implications.

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