The role of working memory in tactile selective attention.
Load theory suggests that working memory controls the extent to which irrelevant distractors are processed (e.g., Lavie, Hirst, De Fockert, and Viding, 2004). However, so far this proposal has only been tested in vision. Here, we examine the extent to which tactile selective attention also depends o...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2009
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| _version_ | 1826294194764775424 |
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| author | Dalton, P Lavie, N Spence, C |
| author_facet | Dalton, P Lavie, N Spence, C |
| author_sort | Dalton, P |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Load theory suggests that working memory controls the extent to which irrelevant distractors are processed (e.g., Lavie, Hirst, De Fockert, and Viding, 2004). However, so far this proposal has only been tested in vision. Here, we examine the extent to which tactile selective attention also depends on working memory. In Experiment 1, participants focused their attention on continuous target vibrations while attempting to ignore pulsed distractor vibrations. In Experiment 2, targets were always presented to a particular hand, with distractors being presented to the other hand. In both experiments, a high (vs. low) load in a concurrent working memory task led to greater interference by the tactile distractors. These results establish the role of working memory in the control of tactile selective attention, demonstrating for the first time that the principles of load theory also apply to the tactile modality. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:41:53Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:be2e2ac8-03d3-497d-a1f4-20024c5bbc31 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:41:53Z |
| publishDate | 2009 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:be2e2ac8-03d3-497d-a1f4-20024c5bbc312022-03-27T05:37:18ZThe role of working memory in tactile selective attention.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:be2e2ac8-03d3-497d-a1f4-20024c5bbc31EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2009Dalton, PLavie, NSpence, CLoad theory suggests that working memory controls the extent to which irrelevant distractors are processed (e.g., Lavie, Hirst, De Fockert, and Viding, 2004). However, so far this proposal has only been tested in vision. Here, we examine the extent to which tactile selective attention also depends on working memory. In Experiment 1, participants focused their attention on continuous target vibrations while attempting to ignore pulsed distractor vibrations. In Experiment 2, targets were always presented to a particular hand, with distractors being presented to the other hand. In both experiments, a high (vs. low) load in a concurrent working memory task led to greater interference by the tactile distractors. These results establish the role of working memory in the control of tactile selective attention, demonstrating for the first time that the principles of load theory also apply to the tactile modality. |
| spellingShingle | Dalton, P Lavie, N Spence, C The role of working memory in tactile selective attention. |
| title | The role of working memory in tactile selective attention. |
| title_full | The role of working memory in tactile selective attention. |
| title_fullStr | The role of working memory in tactile selective attention. |
| title_full_unstemmed | The role of working memory in tactile selective attention. |
| title_short | The role of working memory in tactile selective attention. |
| title_sort | role of working memory in tactile selective attention |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT daltonp theroleofworkingmemoryintactileselectiveattention AT lavien theroleofworkingmemoryintactileselectiveattention AT spencec theroleofworkingmemoryintactileselectiveattention AT daltonp roleofworkingmemoryintactileselectiveattention AT lavien roleofworkingmemoryintactileselectiveattention AT spencec roleofworkingmemoryintactileselectiveattention |