Testing locus coeruleus-norepinephrine accounts of working memory, attention control, and fluid intelligence

Robison, Matthew K.; Ralph, Kathryn J.; Gondoli, Dawn M.; Torres, Alexis; Campbell, Stephen; Brewer, Gene A.; Gibson, Bradley S.

doi:10.3758/s13415-023-01096-2

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 128 publications

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“…The correlation between P3b amplitude and working memory accuracy in the present study is more likely related to a shared impact of attentional allocation on P3b amplitude and working memory encoding. By analogy, pupil dilation is also enhanced for oddballs, correlated with working memory performance, and linked with locus coeruleus activity (Aminihajibashi et al, 2019;Eckstein et al, 2019;Gilzenrat et al, 2010;Murphy et al, 2011;Robison et al, 2023;Robison & Unsworth, 2019;Zokaei et al, 2019). However, this does mean that the mechanisms that produce pupil dilation are the same as the mechanisms that encode information into working memory.…”

Section: Decoding Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced Working Memory Representations for Rare Events

Carrasco,

Simmons,

Kiat

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Rare events (oddballs) produce a variety of enhanced physiological responses relative to frequent events (standards), including the P3b component of the event-related potential (ERP) waveform. Previous research has suggested that the P3b component is related to working memory, which implies that working memory representations will be enhanced for rare stimuli. To test this hypothesis, we devised a modified oddball paradigm in which the target was a disk presented at one of 16 different locations, which were divided into a rare set and a frequent set. Participants made a binary response on each trial to report whether the target appeared in the rare set or the frequent set. As expected, the P3b was much larger for stimuli appearing at a location within the rare set. We also included occasional probe trials in which the subject reported the exact location of the target. We found that these reports were more accurate for locations within the rare set than for locations within the frequent set. Moreover, the mean accuracy of these reports was correlated with the mean amplitude of the P3b. We also applied multivariate pattern analysis to the ERP data to 'decode' the remembered location of the target. Decoding accuracy was greater for locations within the rare set than for locations within the frequent set. These behavioral and electrophysiological results demonstrate that although both frequent and rare events are stored in working memory, the representations are enhanced for rare events.

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Section: Decoding Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced Working Memory Representations for Rare Events

Carrasco,

Simmons,

Kiat

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…Thus, as Robison (2017a, 2017b) propose and subsequently demonstrate, people who exhibit more fluctuations in arousal from trial to trial should exhibit lower cognitive performance. Indeed, these two measures (TEPR magnitude and pretrial pupil variability) consistently correlate with individual differences in performance in a wide variety of tasks, including measures of attention control, working memory, and long-term memory, (Aminihajibashi et al, 2020;Madore & Wagner, 2022;Miller et al, 2019;Robison & Brewer, 2020, Robison & Brewer, 2023Robison & Unsworth, 2019Unsworth & Miller, 2023; 6 PUPILLARY CORRELATES OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN N-BACK performance correlates with intensity, consistency, or both, then the framework can apply to a broader array of cognitive domains than previously thought.…”

Section: Pupillary Correlates Of Individual Differences In N-back Tas...mentioning

confidence: 85%

Pupillary correlates of individual differences in n-back task performance

Robison

2023

Preprint

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We used pupillometry during a 2-back task to examine individual differences in the intensity and consistency of attention and their relative role in a working memory task. We used sensitivity, or the ability to distinguish targets (2-back matches) and non-targets, as the measure of task performance; task evoked pupillary responses (TEPRs) as the measure of attentional intensity; and intraindividual pretrial pupil variability as the measure of attentional consistency. TEPRs were greater on target trials compared to non-target trials, although there was no difference in TEPR magnitude when participants answered correctly or incorrectly to targets. Importantly, this effect interacted with performance: high performers showed a greater separation in their TEPRs between targets and non-targets, whereas there was little difference for low performers. Further, in regression analysis, larger TEPRs on target trials predicted better performance, whereas larger TEPRs on non-target trials predicted worse performance. Sensitivity positively correlated with average pretrial pupil diameter and negatively correlated with intraindividual variability in pretrial pupil diameter. Overall, we found evidence that both attentional intensity (TEPRs) and consistency (pretrial pupil variation) predict performance on an n-back working memory task.

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“…At the level of individual differences, attention control and working memory capacity are closely related, yet distinct constructs. In latent variable analyses, they tend to share about 50% of their variance (Burgoyne et al, 2023;Draheim et al, 2022Draheim et al, , 2023Robison et al, 2023;Robison & Unsworth, 2017, 2018Unsworth et al, 2014;Unsworth & Spillers, 2010). Given those definitions, it stands to reason that attention capture should be negatively correlated with attention control and working memory capacity: people with relatively strong attention control and high working memory capacity should show less susceptibility to attentional capture.…”

Section: Individual Differences In Attention Capture Control and Work...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fortunately, there are potential ways to resolve both psychometric issues -those with measuring attention control and those with measuring attention capture 1 . First, over the past several years, major strides have been made in the improvement of measurement approaches to attention control (Burgoyne et al, 2023;Draheim et al, 2021Draheim et al, , 2023Robison et al, 2023;. These studies have demonstrated that attention control can be measured reliably, both within and across measurement occasions, and the measures intercorrelate to the extent that they form a coherent latent-level factor.…”

Section: Individual Differences In Attention Capture Control and Work...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Participants completed all attention control tasks, the visual search task, then all working memory tasks, which took about two hours. After a brief demographic survey, the tasks appeared in the same fixed order (presented below) for all participants (Robison et al, 2023). Tasks were 2 Ethnicity percentages do not add up to 100 as participants were able to select all that apply.…”

Section: Tasksmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Individual differences in attention capture, control and working memory

Garner,

Robison

2024

Preprint

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Attention capture is an important mechanism that is useful, such as bringing brake lights to attention when driving in a car. But other times it is expedient to block distracting information from intrusion. In this 2023 experiment, we used a color singleton search task to measure attention capture. Rather than solely using the subtraction method to measure the capture effect, we incorporated eye-tracking to provide potentially more reliable measures of overt attention. We calculated multiple dependent variables based on the scan path and estimated a capture effect for each participant using linear mixed effects modeling, which yielded a more reliable measure than the subtraction method. The eye-tracking measures were in fact more reliable than other reaction time indicators of capture. But surprisingly, the reaction time effect was not correlated with dwell time, distraction probability, or probability of the first saccade landing on the distractor. Finally, we measured individual differences in working memory capacity and attention control with an independent set of measures. Neither working memory capacity nor attention control correlated with the reaction time capture effect, although the mixed model capture effect correlated moderately with working memory

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Testing locus coeruleus-norepinephrine accounts of working memory, attention control, and fluid intelligence

Cited by 9 publications

References 128 publications

Enhanced Working Memory Representations for Rare Events

Enhanced Working Memory Representations for Rare Events

Pupillary correlates of individual differences in n-back task performance

Individual differences in attention capture, control and working memory

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