# Studying the Role of Visuospatial Attention in the Multi-Attribute Task Battery II
## 1 Introduction
### Theoretical Background  
The diagnosis of individual cognitive aptitudes such as that of selective visuospatial attention or working memory capacity can take on different forms, from test batteries, over real-world tasks, to relatively pure tests of individual cognitive functions in controlled experiments [3; 4; 5; 6; 7]. In the domain of visuospatial attention, [PERSON] et al. [8] have recently argued for the usage of experimental tasks because they fulfill two important criteria of diagnostic measurements: They are of high internal validity because they measure different forms of capture of visuospatial attention--top-down dependent capture of visuospatial attention based on current search goals versus bottom-up capture of attention due to high local feature contrasts or salience--in a relatively pure way; that is, free from confounding or contaminating sources of variance such as task shifting, working memory demands, or modality changes. These experimental task measures also showed test-retest reliability in the form of significant correlations between measures of attention across different measurement time points [8; 9]. Here, we used the experimental measurement of visuospatial attention to see if relatively pure measures of visuospatial attention can help us to understand performance in an applied test: the Multi-Attribute Task Battery (II, MATB-II) [10]. The MATB-II uses a simplified version of a flight console. The MATB-II can be presented on a computer monitor, and participants must work on different tasks related to the control of the simulated flight console. For their MATB-II performance, participants, thus, have to switch between tasks, with different tasks associated with different areas of the console and with tasks presented in an unforeseeable sequence. For instance, participants have to monitor two buttons in the upper-left hand corner for color changes (from green to gray and from gray to red) and have to respond to the color changes by left-clicking with the mouse on the corresponding changed buttons (system monitoring task). This task is embedded in a sequence of other tasks such as the tracking of a moving crosshair (tracking task) presented to the right of the light and scales, or responses in the lower left of the display to audio presented via headphones (communication task). An in-depth explanation and description of the MATB-II can be found in Section 2.4 below. Importantly, we chose the MATB-II for an investigation with our experimental visuospatial attention measurement because especially the system monitoring task of salient color changes in the upper left corner during MATB-II performance could benefit either from bottom-up capture of visuospatial attention by salient stimuli, here, color changes, or from top-down control of visuospatial attention, here, to look for particular colors (e.g., the color red) [11; 12; 13; 14; 15]. To tell if bottom-up or top-down attention is responsible for MATB-II performance is important. If salient features capture attention in a stimulus-driven or bottom-up fashion, pilots would not need any training and participants would not need any instructions regarding what color changes to look for. A salient color change would capture attention, ensuring that pilots or participants pay attention to the relevant signal. However, the situation is different if top-down control accounts for what pilots and participants pay attention to. Here is an example: Suppose you were to pick up a friend in front of a crowded station. To successfully spot your friend in the crowd, you would have to know what he or she looks like and search for him or her by these known features. In an analogue case during the control of the flight console, pilots and participants would need proper training and instructions to search for and find a critical signal on the console or display.