Nick Gaspelin

❗New paper published in Cognition❗ "A common signal-strength factor limits awareness and precise knowledge of multiple moving objects across the adult lifespan" from Iris Wiegand, Igor S. Utochkin, Ava Mitra, Chia-Chien Wu, and Jeremy M. Wolfe

authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Elaine (my daughter) is officially the mascot for our Linux-based stimulus machines in the lab. All coding frustrations can now be addressed by viewing this picture.

>> sudo get-cuteness

P.S. The title is an homage to the classic Jeremy Wolfe paper, "What can a million trials tell us about visual search?" He approved (of the title) at Psychonomics!

What can a half-million saccades tell us about distractor suppression? Salient distractions in the environment compete for attention and have the potential to interfere with our goals. An abundance of research has therefo…

Here's a new paper in which we analyzed >700,000 eye movements to understand attentional suppression of distracting stimuli. This large dataset helps resolve some longstanding questions about the timing and learning of suppression.
@kaitlyndrennan.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I'd like to be added if possible.

Sensory reformatting for a working visual memory A core function of visual working memory (WM) is to sustain mental representations of recent visual inputs, thereby bridging moments of experience. This is thought to occur in part by recruiting early...

new paper in TICS officially out today. great learning from and writing with Anastasia, and super cool cover art from Prof. Pinar Yoldas.
www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

What can we learn from >700,000 eye movements about distractor suppression? Tonight, Kaitlyn Drennan will present a large data set that aims to resolve difficult-to-answer questions about distractor suppression. Stop by her poster to see beautiful data!

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Are working memory representations feature-based or object-based? This afternoon, Chenye Bao will present some awesome ERP work using the CDA component to test between these accounts. She finds an interesting discrepancy between behavior and ERPs. Don't miss her talk! @chenyebao.bsky.social

How do we learn to ignore salient distractors? This morning, Yue Zhang will be present fascinating work suggesting successful ignoring actually requires an initial instance of capture. This learning can occur rapidly within 1-2 trials! Don't miss her talk. @yuezhang-mu.bsky.social ​

Great keynote by Joy Geng at OPAM! Super cool research and great early career advice. Very inspiring and motivational to see!

Does the breadth of attentional focus determine whether salient stimuli capture attention? Theeuwes has suggested prior evidence of signal suppression can be explained by parallel search. Xiaojin Ma put this to the test. Stop by her poster to learn more! @xiaojinma.bsky.social

Microsaccades strongly modulate but do not directly cause the EEG N2pc marker of spatial attention Researchers often study human attention using microsaccades and the N2pc EEG marker, but it is unclear to what extent microsaccades contribute to N2pc. This study shows that microsaccades modulate N2p...

The human-neuroscience N2pc marker of covert and internal attention co-occurs with spatial biases in microsaccades, 200-300 ms after prompted to shift attention. (How) are these empirical phenomena related? Check it out in the latest work led by @baiweiliu.bsky.social:
doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Upcoming presentations at Psychonomics. We have many super-cool projects on attention and working memory that you don't want to miss! See you in Denver! @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social @xiaojinma.bsky.social @chenyebao.bsky.social @yuezhang-mu.bsky.social @kaitlyndrennan.bsky.social

Congrats!

#sensoryprocessingsensitivity #neuroskyence

Any early-career researchers in #workingmemory wanting to contribute to an #openscience initiative? I'm looking for help building up a data hub resource for the field. Volunteers can expect to devote a few hours, and might pick up insights into handling research data and how to use Github.

Assistant Professor, Cognitive and Brain Sciences The University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) appreciates your interest in employment at our growing institution. We want your application process to go smoothly and quickly. Final applications must be submitt...

Job announcement! UN Reno Psychology (Cognitive & Brain Sciences division) is hiring for a tenure-track position. Come join us! We have a great group! Deadline December 1. Please share!

nshe.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UNR-external...

#neuroskyence #neuroscience

I am accepting a Ph.D. student to begin Fall 2026. The position would be part of the Cognition and Neuroscience program at Mizzou. Great opportunities to learn eye tracking and ERPs. Ideal candidates will have some background in attentional capture and visual search. If interested, please email me!

Rapid inversion of singleton distractor representations underlies learned attentional suppression In visually complex and dynamically changing environments, humans often face the challenge of filtering out salient stimuli that are presently irrelevant to their tasks. Recent evidence suggests that ...

We found attentional suppression might be related to re-coding salient singleton locations in a inverted format to target locations
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

This looks awesome! I couldn't help but read the whole paper. Well-executed and interesting work. Cool stuff. :)

I have a full course on R for Psychology and Neuroscience, which includes sample programs and lecture videos. Also has some recommended books on R programming. Perfect for beginners!
rworkshop.missouri.edu

The Signal Suppression Account 2.0: What’s New? Gaspelin, N., Ma, X., & Luck, S. J. (2025). Signal suppression 2.0: An updated account of attentional capture and suppression. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1-21. [Link to Article] Do sali…

We published a review paper updating the Signal Suppression Account to version 2.0. We explain challenges to the original theory and how it has been updated in response. This refined theory makes new predictions about learned suppression that need testing.

gaspelinblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/t...

1/ Why are we so easily distracted? 🧠 In our new EEG preprint w/ Henry Jones, @monicarosenb.bsky.social and @edvogel.bsky.social we show that distractibility is associated w/ reduced neural connectivity — and can be predicted from EEG with ~80% accuracy using machine learning.

By integrating the 'pinging' technique with fMRI-based multivariate pattern analysis, we provide evidence for a dual-format representation of attention during the preparatory period.

doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

We are looking for our next colleague. Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions!

Testing the Attentional Window Account of Capture Ma, X., Luck, S.J., & Gaspelin, N., (in press). Ignoring salient distractors inside and outside the attentional window. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. [PDF] Many studies have shown that ind…

New paper from my lab testing how the breadth of attentional focus influences visual distraction by salient stimuli. Across six experiments, we find no ERP or behavioral evidence in support of the attentional window account.

Read about it on my blog:
gaspelinblog.wordpress.com/2025/09/08/t...

Vision peeps...
Gah! What's the citation demonstrating people's ability to track objects defined purely by common motion, as in this demo?

I've been racking my brain for days. Thanks!

DeepMeaning: Estimating and Interpreting Scene Meaning for Attention Using a Vision-Language Transformer Abstract. Humans rapidly process and understand real-world scenes with ease. Our stored semantic knowledge gained from experience is thought to be central to this ability by organizing perceptual info...

Our new paper using transformers to understanding scene semantics has finally dropped in Open Mind. Fully open access. #cognition #percepton (If you follow me for music you can ignore this one.) direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...

You were instrumental in shaping the new theory!

Signal suppression 2.0: An updated account of attentional capture and suppression - Psychonomic Bulletin & Review The signal suppression account of attentional capture was proposed in 2010 to resolve a longstanding debate between bottom-up and top-down theories of capture by proposing that a top-down suppressive ...

Excited this review paper is out! We update the signal suppression account to explain recent findings related to attention capture by salient stimuli. We also propose new mechanisms of learned attentional control. Written with Steve Luck and @xiaojinma.bsky.social

link.springer.com/article/10.3...