Tradeoffs between item and order information in short-term memory

Guitard, Dominic; Saint‐Aubin, Jean; Cowan, Nelson

doi:10.1016/j.jml.2021.104300

Cited by 7 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…However, despite the importance of this relationship for STM models, the role of limited attention to item and order has remained unclear. Guitard et al (2021, 2022) showed that there is an asymmetrical tradeoff in that preparing for either an item or an order test on the same trial reduces performance on both types of information, but with more severe repercussions for order information. Here, we explored the possibility that the tradeoff was a type of time-based resource sharing process (cf.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Item and order information play an important role in our life, but we have limited knowledge of their relationship. Recently, Guitard et al (2021, 2022) have found that participants can optimize encoding for a verbal test of each attribute separately (order test, item test) but that, when participants attempt to prepare for both tests simultaneously, there is a cost that is more important for order performance than item performance. Here we have directly evaluated the cause of the asymmetry by contrasting three hypotheses, the rate hypothesis, the asymptote hypothesis, and the hybrid hypothesis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The same was true for Guitard and Cowan (2022), who found that attention could be allocated to items and order in a fine-grained manner. Here, using a single list per trial (Guitard et al, 2022) and, unlike previous studies, we manipulate the rate of presentation, along with the attention conditions during encoding (like Guitard et al, prepare for a test of items, their order, or both). We apply a simple growth model to determine whether the attention resource matters for the rate of encoding of information, the asymptotic level that encoding can reach, or both.…”

Section: Rate Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To account for this asymmetry in the results between effects of dividing attention on item versus order encoding, Guitard et al (2022) put forward essentially a time-based resource-sharing account (for a similar though not identical use of the term, see Barrouillet et al, 2011). In the account, item and order information are based on distinct processes.…”

Section: Rate Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to the rate hypothesis, having to be prepared for both an item test and an order test (conditions marked 50) would reduce the rate at which participants are able to accumulate discretionary information, compared to the conditions marked 100. Moreover, the dual-attention (50) conditions would be more detrimental to the accumulation of discretionary order information compared to item information, i.e., an asymmetrical dual-attention cost (Guitard et al, 2022). The parameters used to draw Figure 1 were adjusted to ensure that the asymmetry is present with a 1-s per item presentation time, the time that Guitard et al used.…”

Section: Rate Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

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The tradeoff between item and order information in short-term memory does not depend on encoding time.

Guitard¹,

Cowan²

2023

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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Participants can optimize encoding of an immediate verbal memory test for item or for order information, or they can try to be ready for either type of test. Dividing encoding between both kinds of information, however, comes at a cost. Recently, it has been shown that the cost is more severe for order information compared to item information . Here, for the first time, we evaluated which factor can better account for this asymmetry by contrasting two hypotheses. According to a rate hypothesis, divided attention affects the rate of encoding more for order than for items. According to an alternative, asymptote hypothesis, divided attention does not affect the rates but diminishes the endpoint, or asymptotic level, of order encoding more than item encoding. In three experiments to distinguish these hypotheses, participants prepared for an item fragment completion test, an order reconstruction test, or both types of tests, in trials with different durations of presentation. Overall, our results were better accounted for by a model which assumes that dividing attention between preparation for item and order testing affects the asymptote of encoding more for order than for items, with no effects on the rates of order or item encoding compared to preparation for a single test. The findings not only replicate our prior results, but also demonstrate that the allocation of attention to item or order processing can be disentangled from the time on task. Public Significance StatementWhen remembering a list of items, information about the items (such as ingredients in your favorite recipe) and their order (such as which ingredients to add first, second, and so on) are important theoretically and practically. Here we show that the way attention is divided between words and their list order is stable regardless of whether each item is presented for a short time (fraction of a second) or a relatively long time (several seconds). In all cases, attention proves to be more critical for order information in short-term memory, a finding relevant to many cognitive activities (including communication, eating, and learning).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%