Abstract
Attention refers to the set of mechanisms that tune psychological and neural processing in order to identify and select the relevant events against competing distractions. This type of definition casts attention as function rather than as representation or as state. This presentation will examine the various possible ‘sources’ of biases that can prepare perceptual mechanisms to improve interactions with the environment. Whereas many studies in the literature have probed how biases can facilitate neural processing according to receptive-field properties of neurons, it is clear that it is possible to anticipate stimulus properties that may not be easily mapped onto receptive fields. Space-based, feature-based, object-based, category-based, and temporal attention can all affect visual information processing in systematic and adaptive ways. In addition to such goal-related factors, there may also be other possible potent modulators of ongoing information processing, such as long-term memories and motivational factors associated with anticipated events.