Top-down modulation: bridging selective attention and working memory

Gazzaley, Adam; Nobre, Anna C.

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2011.11.014

Cited by 1,169 publications

(991 citation statements)

References 93 publications

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“…It has been widely argued that the mechanisms of working memory and selective attention are closely linked whereby attention serves to bias the contents of working memory towards goal directed information (Awh, Vogel, & Oh, 2006;Gazzaley & Nobre, 2012). Given the large number of compounds and different pairings, any strategy that relies on memorising the relationship between whole compounds and outcomes would be unlikely to yield performance above chance.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The fact that differences in associative memory were still observed at test under these conditions suggests that aspects of the data are less easily amenable to this role for automaticity. Given the tight coupling between learning, memory, and attention (e.g., Ballesteros, Reales, Garcia, Carrasco, 2006;Desimone & Duncan, 1995;Gazzaley & Nobre, 2012;Markant, Worden, & Amso, 2015), providing a theoretically clarified role for automaticity presents a challenge for this class of explanation.…”

Section: Theoretical Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Automaticity and cognitive control in the learned predictiveness effect.

Shone¹,

Harris²,

Livesey³

2015

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cogniti

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In novel contexts, learning is biased toward cues previously experienced as predictive compared with cues previously experienced as nonpredictive. This is known as learned predictiveness. A recent finding has shown that instructions issued about the causal status of cues influences the expression of learned predictiveness, suggesting that controlled, volitional processes play a role in this effect. Three experiments are reported further investigating the effects of instructional manipulations on learned predictiveness. Experiment 1 confirms the influence of inferential processes, extending previous work to suggest that instructions affect associative memory as well as causal reasoning. Experiments 2 and 3 used a procedure designed to tease apart inferential and automatic contributions to the bias by presenting instructed causes that were previously predictive and previously nonpredictive. The results demonstrate that the prior predictiveness of cues influences subsequent learning over and above the effect of explicit instruction. However, it appears that the relationship between explicit instruction and predictive history is interactive rather than additive. Potential explanations for this interactivity are discussed.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automaticity and cognitive control in the learned predictiveness effect.

Shone¹,

Harris²,

Livesey³

2015

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cogniti

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Our most recent findings (Holt & Delvenne, 2014) suggest that those constraints influence the transfer of information into VSTM, revealing a BFA in recall for items that are selectively pre-cued at encoding. Given that selection may also influence the maintenance of information in VSTM (Gazzaley & Nobre, 2012;Rutman et al, 2009;Zanto et al, 2011), the present study investigated whether bilateral items can better survive decay in VSTM relative to unilateral items when attentionally selected at encoding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, their findings revealed that the cue related advantage was associated with a specific electrophysiological correlate of VSTM maintenance indicating the number of items within VSTM (otherwise known as contralateral delay activity (CDA), see Vogel & Machizawa, 2004). Research also suggests that directing attention to task relevant stimuli at encoding can subsequently modulate activity in sensory cortices which code those stimuli (for a review see Gazzaley & Nobre, 2012). This top-down modulation has also been shown to directly influence VSTM performance (Rutman, Clapp, Chadwick & Gazzaley, 2009;Zanto, Rubens, Thangavel, & Gazzaley, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A bilateral advantage for maintaining objects in visual short term memory

Holt

Delvenne

2015

Acta Psychologica

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Research has shown that attentional pre-cues can subsequently influence the transfer of information into visual short term memory (VSTM) (Schmidt, B., Vogel, E., Woodman, G., & Luck, S. (2002). However, those effects were only shown when the pre-cues were directed to stimuli displayed across hemifields relative to stimuli within a single hemifield. Importantly, the results were not replicated when participants were required to memorise colours (Experiment 2) or locations (Experiment 3) in the absence of spatial pre-cues. Those findings strongly suggest that attentional pre-cues have a strong influence on both the transfer of information in VSTM and its subsequent maintenance, allowing bilateral items to better survive decay.

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“…[1][2][3][4] Working memory (WM), in turn, is closely linked to attention, in that information that survives the attentional filter is accessible for maintenance over brief periods of time to be retrieved or manipulated for purposes of guiding subsequent goal-directed behavior. [5][6][7] As such, efficient attention and WM functions allow us to navigate complex and dynamic environments. Given the fundamental importance of these cognitive faculties, many recent neuroscientific investigations are focused on studying ways in which we can improve our attentional or executive control abilities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to Assess Gaming-Induced Benefits on Attention and Working Memory

Mishra

Bavelier

Gazzaley

2012

Games for Health Journal

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Our daily actions are driven by our goals in the moment, constantly forcing us to choose among various options. Attention and working memory are key enablers of that process. Attention allows for selective processing of goal-relevant information and rejecting task-irrelevant information. Working memory functions to maintain goal-relevant information in memory for brief periods of time for subsequent recall and/or manipulation. Efficient attention and working memory thus support the best extraction and retention of environmental information for optimal task performance. Recent studies have evidenced that attention and working memory abilities can be enhanced by cognitive training games as well as entertainment videogames. Here we review key cognitive paradigms that have been used to evaluate the impact of game-based training on various aspects of attention and working memory. Common use of such methodology within the scientific community will enable direct comparison of the efficacy of different games across age groups and clinical populations. The availability of common assessment tools will ultimately facilitate development of the most effective forms of game-based training for cognitive rehabilitation and education.

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Top-down modulation: bridging selective attention and working memory

Cited by 1,169 publications

References 93 publications

Automaticity and cognitive control in the learned predictiveness effect.

Automaticity and cognitive control in the learned predictiveness effect.

A bilateral advantage for maintaining objects in visual short term memory

How to Assess Gaming-Induced Benefits on Attention and Working Memory

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