Retrospective Attention Interacts with Stimulus Strength to Shape Working Memory Performance.

Orienting attention retrospectively to selective contents in working memory (WM) influences performance. A separate line of research has shown that stimulus strength shapes perceptual representations. There is little research on how stimulus strength during encoding shapes WM performance, and how ef...

全面介绍

书目详细资料
Main Authors: Wildegger, T, Humphreys, G, Nobre, A
格式: Journal article
语言:English
出版: Public Library of Science 2016
_version_ 1826268474758922240
author Wildegger, T
Humphreys, G
Nobre, A
author_facet Wildegger, T
Humphreys, G
Nobre, A
author_sort Wildegger, T
collection OXFORD
description Orienting attention retrospectively to selective contents in working memory (WM) influences performance. A separate line of research has shown that stimulus strength shapes perceptual representations. There is little research on how stimulus strength during encoding shapes WM performance, and how effects of retrospective orienting might vary with changes in stimulus strength. We explore these questions in three experiments using a continuous-recall WM task. In Experiment 1 we show that benefits of cueing spatial attention retrospectively during WM maintenance (retrocueing) varies according to stimulus contrast during encoding. Retrocueing effects emerge for supraliminal but not sub-threshold stimuli. However, once stimuli are supraliminal, performance is no longer influenced by stimulus contrast. In Experiments 2 and 3 we used a mixture-model approach to examine how different sources of error in WM are affected by contrast and retrocueing. For high-contrast stimuli (Experiment 2), retrocues increased the precision of successfully remembered items. For low-contrast stimuli (Experiment 3), retrocues decreased the probability of mistaking a target with distracters. These results suggest that the processes by which retrospective attentional orienting shape WM performance are dependent on the quality of WM representations, which in turn depends on stimulus strength during encoding.
first_indexed 2024-03-06T21:10:15Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:3de48cfe-747e-45db-b387-ba1cf5d504b1
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-06T21:10:15Z
publishDate 2016
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:3de48cfe-747e-45db-b387-ba1cf5d504b12022-03-26T14:22:12ZRetrospective Attention Interacts with Stimulus Strength to Shape Working Memory Performance.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:3de48cfe-747e-45db-b387-ba1cf5d504b1EnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordPublic Library of Science2016Wildegger, THumphreys, GNobre, AOrienting attention retrospectively to selective contents in working memory (WM) influences performance. A separate line of research has shown that stimulus strength shapes perceptual representations. There is little research on how stimulus strength during encoding shapes WM performance, and how effects of retrospective orienting might vary with changes in stimulus strength. We explore these questions in three experiments using a continuous-recall WM task. In Experiment 1 we show that benefits of cueing spatial attention retrospectively during WM maintenance (retrocueing) varies according to stimulus contrast during encoding. Retrocueing effects emerge for supraliminal but not sub-threshold stimuli. However, once stimuli are supraliminal, performance is no longer influenced by stimulus contrast. In Experiments 2 and 3 we used a mixture-model approach to examine how different sources of error in WM are affected by contrast and retrocueing. For high-contrast stimuli (Experiment 2), retrocues increased the precision of successfully remembered items. For low-contrast stimuli (Experiment 3), retrocues decreased the probability of mistaking a target with distracters. These results suggest that the processes by which retrospective attentional orienting shape WM performance are dependent on the quality of WM representations, which in turn depends on stimulus strength during encoding.
spellingShingle Wildegger, T
Humphreys, G
Nobre, A
Retrospective Attention Interacts with Stimulus Strength to Shape Working Memory Performance.
title Retrospective Attention Interacts with Stimulus Strength to Shape Working Memory Performance.
title_full Retrospective Attention Interacts with Stimulus Strength to Shape Working Memory Performance.
title_fullStr Retrospective Attention Interacts with Stimulus Strength to Shape Working Memory Performance.
title_full_unstemmed Retrospective Attention Interacts with Stimulus Strength to Shape Working Memory Performance.
title_short Retrospective Attention Interacts with Stimulus Strength to Shape Working Memory Performance.
title_sort retrospective attention interacts with stimulus strength to shape working memory performance
work_keys_str_mv AT wildeggert retrospectiveattentioninteractswithstimulusstrengthtoshapeworkingmemoryperformance
AT humphreysg retrospectiveattentioninteractswithstimulusstrengthtoshapeworkingmemoryperformance
AT nobrea retrospectiveattentioninteractswithstimulusstrengthtoshapeworkingmemoryperformance