GLOBAL-LOCAL ANALYSIS IN HIV-1 INFECTION

One hundred twenty-one HIV-seropositive (HIV+) individuals and 85 seronegative controls performed a divided-attention task that engaged automatic and controlled attentional processing. Reaction times (RTs) to global and local targets that varied in probability were measured in 2 conditions. A neutral condition where global and local targets were equally probable was included as baseline. Participants showed expected tradeoffs in RTs as a function of target-level probability, with longer RTs to less probable targets and shorter RTs to more probable targets. However, the HIV+ group showed significantly greater costs compared with controls. Results are consistent with previous findings that HIV+ individuals are selectively impaired on tasks of controlled attentional processing, particularly under conditions of divided attention.