Attentional switch to memory: An early and critical phase of the cognitive cascade allowing autobiographical memory retrieval

Abstract

Remembering and mentally reliving yesterday's lunch is a typical example of episodic autobiographical memory retrieval. In the present review, we reappraised the complex cascade of cognitive processes involved in memory retrieval, by highlighting one particular phase that has received little interest so far: attentional switch to memory (ASM). As attention cannot be simultaneously directed toward external stimuli and internal memories, there has to be an attentional switch from the external to the internal world in order to initiate memory retrieval. We formulated hypotheses and developed hypothetical models of both the cognitive and brain processes that accompany ASM. We suggest that gaze aversion could serve as an objective temporal marker of the point at which people switch their attention to memory, and highlight several fields (neuropsychology, neuroscience, social cognition, comparative psychology) in which ASM markers could be essential.Our review thus provides a new framework for understanding the early stages of autobiographical memory retrieval.

Attentional switch to memory: An early and late stage of cognitive processing allowing efficient visual search

“…We presumed that, as mentioned earlier, the participants might switch their search strategy from a top-down passageway based on the color expectation to a bottom-up visual search based on orthographic processing. That is to say, the attention was initially oriented to external information for comparing beverage labels with the priming label, which is considered to be in the external focus of attention (Hautekiet et al, 2023;Servais et al, 2023). Consequently, the color-flavor congruent information consistent with the prime words in orthography would capture more focused attention.…”

“…However, proposed that participants may divert their search strategy from relying on the color association to producing the expectation that violated the association, leading to a reduced or even eliminating the color-flavor incongruency effect. A view called attentional switch to memory(ASM) explicated the phase that attention switched from the external environment to the internal memory (Servais et al, 2023). It may be the key mechanism underlying the application of visual search strategies and further research is needed to dig deeper into it.…”

Shifting attention between perception and working memory

“…Early behavioural studies used listreproduction tasks requiring verbal or manual reports of digits or letter series which were either perceptually available, stored in memory, or required integration across both domains (Carlson, Wenger, & Sullivan, 1993;Dark, 1990;Weber, Burt, & Noll, 1986). After a relative hiatus, the question of shifting attention between sensory and internally generated information has attracted renewed interest (Calzolari, Boneva, & Fernández-Espejo, 2022;Gilbert, Frith, & Burgess, 2005;Hautekiet, Verschooren, Langerock, & Vergauwe, 2023;Honey, Newman, & Schapiro, 2017;Poskanzer & Aly, 2023;Servais, Hurter, & Barbeau, 2023;Steel, Silson, Garcia, & Robertson, 2024;Treder et al, 2021;Verschooren, Liefooghe, Brass, & Pourtois, 2019;Verschooren, Pourtois, & Egner, 2020;Verschooren, Schindler, De Raedt, & Pourtois, 2019;Verschooren, Schindler, De Raedt, & Pourtois, 2021;Weilnhammer, Stuke, Standvoss, & Sterzer, 2023). For instance, researchers have replicated earlier work within the visual domain using tasks that require participants to shift between perception and memory on a trial-by-trial basis (Hautekiet et al, 2023;Verschooren et al, 2020;Verschooren, Liefooghe, et al, 2019).…”

Immersing oneself into one’s past: Subjective presence can be part of the experience of episodic remembering

“…See also(Servais et al, 2023;Tarder-Stoll et al, 2020) about the attentional switch from the external to the internal mental world that is required by episodic remembering Perrin, D. & Barkasi, M. (2024)…”