A negative emotional state impairs individuals’ ability to filter distractors from working memory: an ERP study

Ye, Chaoxiong; Liu, Ruyi; Guo, Lijing; Zhao, Guoying; Liu, Qiang

doi:10.3758/s13415-024-01166-z

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 56 publications

(109 reference statements)

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“…Previous studies have shown that N2pc can be observed 170-220 ms after retro-cue onset, and CDA can be observed 300 ms after retro-cue onset, persisting throughout maintenance 55,56,61,62,[72][73][74] . Accordingly, our time window of interest for N2pc was between 170 ms and 220 ms after retro-cue onset, and for CDA, it was between 300 ms and 1600 ms after retro-cue onset.…”

Section: Analysis Of N2pc and Cda Amplitudesmentioning

confidence: 92%

Comparing retro-cue benefit mechanisms in visual working memory: Completely valid vs. highly valid retro-cues

Qiang,

Guo,

Nie

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Visual working memory (VWM) plays a crucial role in temporarily maintaining and manipulating visual information. retro-cue benefit (RCB) refers to the enhancement in memory performance when attention is directed to a subset of items within VWM after their initial encoding. Our recent EEG studies have indicated that cue validity can influence the mechanisms underlying RCB formation. However, previous research has not investigated whether there are differences in the mechanisms of RCB formation between completely valid and highly valid cue conditions. This study aims to examine the consistency of RCB mechanisms when retro-cues are completely valid (100% cue validity) compared to highly valid (80% cue validity). We manipulated the retro-cue's cue validity in our experiments and explored cognitive processing mechanisms under different cue validity conditions using EEG technology. We focused on the N2pc component, reflecting attentional resource allocation, and the CDA component, which reflects the quantity of information retained in VWM. The results, encompassing both behavioral and ERP findings, demonstrate that participants in both the 100% and 80% cue validity conditions exhibit robust RCB. Importantly, the degree of RCB remains consistent between these conditions, indicating that participants utilize retro-cues to enhance VWM performance to the same extent. In the 80% cue validity condition, a significant retro-cue cost (RCC) is observed, suggesting that participants selectively eliminate uncued items from VWM. In invalid trials of this condition, response accuracy drops to chance levels, supporting the removal hypothesis. ERP results reveal that attentional resource allocation patterns (N2pc) and the quantity of information retained in VWM (CDA) remain uniform across cue validity conditions. The mechanism responsible for RCB formation appears to involve an all-or-nothing process of discarding uncued information rather than a flexible resource allocation strategy. This study provides insights into the mechanisms of attention allocation and information processing in VWM, suggesting that conclusions drawn from tasks with completely valid retro-cues can be integrated with findings from highly valid cue tasks. These findings shed light on the flexibility of internal attentional resource allocation during RCB formation and contribute to our understanding of attention processes in VWM.

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Section: Analysis Of N2pc and Cda Amplitudesmentioning

confidence: 92%

Comparing retro-cue benefit mechanisms in visual working memory: Completely valid vs. highly valid retro-cues

Qiang,

Guo,

Nie

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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The proactive and reactive mechanisms of learned spatial suppression

Zhao,

Chen,

Duan

et al. 2024

Cerebral Cortex

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Selection history refers to the notion that previous allocations of attention or suppression have the potential to elicit lingering and enduring selection biases that are isolated from goal-driven or stimulus-driven attention. However, in the singleton detection mode task, manipulating the selection history of distractors cannot give rise to pure proactive inhibition. Therefore, we employed a combination of a working memory task and a feature search mode task, simultaneously recording cortical activity using EEG, to investigate the mechanisms of suppression guided by selection history. The results from event-related potential and reaction times showed an enhanced inhibitory performance when the distractor was presented at the high-probability location, along with instances where the target appeared at the high-probability location of distractors. These findings demonstrate that a generalized proactive inhibition bias is learned and processed independent of cognitive resources, which is supported by selection history. In contrast, reactive rejection toward the low-probability location was evident through the Pd component under varying cognitive resource conditions. Taken together, our findings indicated that participants learned proactive inhibition when the distractor was at the high-probability location, whereas reactive rejection was involved at low-probability location.

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The differential impact of face distractors on visual working memory across encoding and delay stages

Ye,

Xu,

Pan

et al. 2024

Atten Percept Psychophys

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External distractions often occur when information must be retained in visual working memory (VWM)—a crucial element in cognitive processing and everyday activities. However, the distraction effects can differ if they occur during the encoding rather than the delay stages. Previous research on these effects used simple stimuli (e.g., color and orientation) rather than considering distractions caused by real-world stimuli on VWM. In the present study, participants performed a facial VWM task under different distraction conditions across the encoding and delay stages to elucidate the mechanisms of distraction resistance in the context of complex real-world stimuli. VWM performance was significantly impaired by delay-stage but not encoding-stage distractors (Experiment 1). In addition, the delay distraction effect arose primarily due to the absence of distractor process at the encoding stage rather than the presence of a distractor during the delay stage (Experiment 2). Finally, the impairment in the delay-distraction condition was not due to the abrupt appearance of distractors (Experiment 3). Taken together, these findings indicate that the processing mechanisms previously established for resisting distractions in VWM using simple stimuli can be extended to more complex real-world stimuli, such as faces.

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A negative emotional state impairs individuals’ ability to filter distractors from working memory: an ERP study

Cited by 3 publications

References 56 publications

Comparing retro-cue benefit mechanisms in visual working memory: Completely valid vs. highly valid retro-cues

Comparing retro-cue benefit mechanisms in visual working memory: Completely valid vs. highly valid retro-cues

The proactive and reactive mechanisms of learned spatial suppression

The differential impact of face distractors on visual working memory across encoding and delay stages

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