Available but unattended conceptual information in working memory: Temporarily active semantic content or persistent memory for prior operations?

Was, Christopher A.

doi:10.1037/0278-7393.33.1.155

Cited by 32 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The slight increase in RT-TRCE in switch trials relative to repeat trials reflects the recent activation of the irrelevant codes. It resembles the slight decay in activated LTM over a few seconds as observed by Woltz and Was (2007). The insensitivity to WM load reflects the fact that it is the activated LTM that is responsible for the effect in conjunction with the finding that activated LTM is not (severely) limited in its capacity.…”

Section: Rt-trce Is Task Specificmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…This interpretation would support Cowan's (1988) and Oberauer's (2001) views. Alternatively, the activated LTM could involve a procedure such as relating a given stimulus to a given category, which accords with Woltz and Was's (2007) view. The present results cannot point to which of these two alternatives is the correct view.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Some authors suggest that these are activated representations (Cowan, 1988;Oberauer, 2001Oberauer, , 2005. Other authors suggest that activated LTM involves procedures such as those used in classifying an item (e.g., "dog") into a category (e.g., "animal") (Woltz & Was, 2007).…”

Section: Rt-trce Is Task Specificmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This last finding was taken as evidence that activated LTM is not severely limited in its capacity. In addition, Woltz and Was (2007) measured how previously held WM information affects category decision times that were performed after variable intervals. The authors showed that recently used LTM structures remained active even for the longest interval used, which was several minutes.…”

Section: Rt-trce Is Task Specificmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Background on Activated LTM Cowan's (1988) and Oberauer's (2001Oberauer's ( , 2002; see also Woltz & Was, 2007) models of WM distinguish between two WM components. The first component involves the currently active LTM representations.…”

Section: Rt-trce Is Task Specificmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

The task rule congruency effect in task switching reflects activated long-term memory.

Meiran¹,

Kessler²

2008

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

117

156

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Reaction time task rule congruency effects (RT-TRCEs) reflect faster responses to stimuli for which the competing task rules indicate the same correct response than to stimuli indicating conflicting responses. The authors tested the hypothesis that RT-TRCE reflects activated overlearned response category codes in long-term memory (such as up or left). The results support the hypothesis by showing that (a) RT-TRCE was absent for tasks for which there were no response codes ready beforehand, (b) RT-TRCE was present after these tasks were practiced, and (c) these practice effects were found only if the tasks permitted forming abstract response category codes. The increase in the RT-TRCE with response slowness, found only for familiar tasks, suggests that the abstract response category codes may be verbal or linguistic in these cases. The results are discussed in relation to task-switching theories and prefrontal functions.Keywords: task switching, working memory, congruency, practice, prefrontal functions Working memory (WM) and task switching are two core executive functions. Their interrelationships have been studied by means of a variety of approaches. These include examinations of WM load effects on task-switching performance (Baddeley, Chincotta, & Adlam, 2001;Emerson & Miyake, 2003), comparing WM span for tasks with WM span of items (Logan, 2004), individual differences studies (e.g., Miyake et al., 2000), and cognitive theorizing (e.g., Logan & Gordon, 2001;Mayr & Kliegl, 2000;Sohn & Anderson, 2001). The present study suggests an as-of-yet unrecognized link between these two functions by focusing on a highly replicable but poorly understood phenomenon from the task-switching literature, the task rule congruency effect (TRCE). In the remainder of the introduction, we review the literature on the TRCE and suggest a WM account for it. The experiments reported in this article provide additional crucial evidence that support our account.Task Switching and the TRCE Researchers interested in task control often use the taskswitching paradigm. The rationale for this choice is straightforward. Performance in stable conditions without task switching can be done in an "automatic pilot" mode, with little need for active control. This luxury is unavailable when there are frequent task switches. Most of the research has concentrated on the various costs associated with task switching (Fagot, 1994;Jersild, 1927; Monsell & Driver, 2000). However, additional highly replicable effects have also been found, and understanding their basis is likely to shed light on how control is accomplished (cf. Altmann, 2003). In the present work, we concentrate on the TRCE. This effect is among the most reliable found in task-switching experiments, yet relatively little work has been done to unravel its causes.To the best of our knowledge, Sudevan and Taylor (1987) were the first to demonstrate the TRCE in the context of task switching. The participants in their experiments responded to single digits and switched between two classification t...

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Section: Rt-trce Is Task Specificmentioning

confidence: 74%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Rt-trce Is Task Specificmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rt-trce Is Task Specificmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rt-trce Is Task Specificmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The task rule congruency effect in task switching reflects activated long-term memory.

Meiran¹,

Kessler²

2008

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

117

156

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

A Fact Retrieval Account of the Acceleration Phenomenon

2016

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The reaction-time task-rule congruency effect is not affected by working memory load: further support for the activated long-term memory hypothesis

Kessler

Meiran

2009

Psychological Research

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Previous studies claimed that task representation is carried out by the activated long-term memory portion of working memory (WM; Meiran and Kessler in J Exp Psychol Human Percept Perform 34:137-157, 2008). The present study provides a more direct support for this hypothesis. We used the reaction-time task-rule congruency effect (RT-TRCE) in a task-switching setup, and tested the effects of loading WM with irrelevant task rules on RT-TRCE. Experiment 1 manipulated WM load in a between-subject design. WM participants performed a color/shape task switching, while having 0, 1 or 3 numerical task rules as WM load. Experiment 2 used a similar load manipulation (1 or 3 rules to load WM) in a within-subject design. Experiment 3 extended these results by loading WM with perceptual tasks that were more similar to the shape/color tasks. The results show that RT-TRCE was not affected by WM load supporting the activated long-term memory hypothesis.

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Available but unattended conceptual information in working memory: Temporarily active semantic content or persistent memory for prior operations?

Cited by 32 publications

References 43 publications

The task rule congruency effect in task switching reflects activated long-term memory.

The task rule congruency effect in task switching reflects activated long-term memory.

A Fact Retrieval Account of the Acceleration Phenomenon

The reaction-time task-rule congruency effect is not affected by working memory load: further support for the activated long-term memory hypothesis

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