Working memory and focal attention.

McElree, Brian

doi:10.1037/0278-7393.27.3.817

Cited by 340 publications

(423 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…In additional support of this suggestion of an adjustable scope of attention, it recently has been observed that, although one can recognize the most recent item in a presented list more quickly than prior items (McElree, 2001), with practice the advantage expands to the most recent four or so items (Verhaeghen, Cerella, & Basak, in press). The latter result suggests that attention at first must be strongly focused on each item as it is presented but that, with sufficient task familiarity, attention can be focused on the last several items at once.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Working memory and flexibility in awareness and attention

Bunting

Cowan

2005

Psychological Research

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We argue that attention and awareness form the basis of one type of working-memory storage. In contrast to models of working memory in which storage and retrieval occur effortlessly, we document that an attention-demanding goal conflict within a retrieval cue impairs recall from working memory. In a conceptual span task, semantic and color-name cues prompted recall of four consecutive words from a twelve-word list. The first-, middle-, and final-four words belonged to different semantic categories (e.g., body parts, animals, and tools) and were shown in different colors (e.g., red, blue, and green). In Experiment 1, the color of the cue matched that of cued items 75% of the time, and the rare mismatch impaired recall. In Experiment 2, though, the color of the cue matched that of the cued items only 25% of the time, and the now-more-frequent mismatches no longer mattered. These results are difficult to explain with passive storage alone and indicate that a processing difficulty impedes recall from working memory, presumably by distracting attention away from its storage function.What is the relation between immediate memory and conscious awareness? William James (1890) described primary memory as "the trailing edge of the conscious present." (Related statements by an early experimental psychologist, Wilhelm Wundt, apparently were never translated into English and would be better described by a German psychologist.) Whereas the trailing-edge description might leave the impression that primary memory serves no important purpose in behavior, in a slight re-conceptualization it can be equated with working memory, the small amount of information that is readily accessible (in contrast to the vast storehouse of long-term memory, which can be accessed only slowly and less surely). Working memory acquired its name because it presumably serves the important function of making available the data needed to carry out cognitive tasks such as comprehension, linguistic planning, and problem-solving (Baddeley, 1986; Baddeley & Logie, 1999). Combining James with more recent work, the information readily accessible to the human mind may have both experiential and behavioral facets.One cannot assume, though, that the mechanisms of working-memory storage and the contents of conscious awareness are one and the same. To the extent that storage is accomplished through a general mechanism that can be shared between disparate types of information and is limited in its capacity (e.g., Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968), it is the kind of storage mechanism that presumably could qualify as the contents of awareness (Baars, 1988(Baars, , 2001Cowan, 1988 Cowan, , 1995 Cowan, , 1999Cowan, , 2001. However, theoretical descriptions of working memory also have included mechanisms that do not fit this description. Proposed mechanisms of this sort have included a large-capacity, short-lived sensory memory (e.g., Broadbent, 1958; Cowan, 1995), code-specific phonological and visuo-spatial buffers (e.g., Baddeley & Logie, 1999), and activated feat...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Working memory and flexibility in awareness and attention

Bunting

Cowan

2005

Psychological Research

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“…An alternative model proposed by McElree was based mainly on examination of the time course of retrieval (McElree, 2001(McElree, , 2006McElree & Dosher, 1989). This model postulates that there are only two representational states: (a) passive representations and (b) a single item in the focus of attention.…”

Section: Instantaneous Retrieval?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The components of working memory updating: An experimental decomposition and individual differences.

Ecker

Lewandowsky

Oberauer³

et al. 2010

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

213

237

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Working memory updating (WMU) has been identified as a cognitive function of prime importance for everyday tasks and has also been found to be a significant predictor of higher mental abilities. Yet, little is known about the constituent processes of WMU. We suggest that operations required in a typical WMU task can be decomposed into 3 major component processes: retrieval, transformation, and substitution. We report a large-scale experiment that instantiated all possible combinations of those 3 component processes. Results show that the 3 components make independent contributions to updating performance. We additionally present structural equation models that link WMU task performance and working memory capacity (WMC) measures. These feature the methodological advancement of estimating interindividual covariation and experimental effects on mean updating measures simultaneously. The modeling results imply that WMC is a strong predictor of WMU skills in general, although some component processes-in particular, substitution skills-were independent of WMC. Hence, the reported predictive power ofWMUmeasures may rely largely on common WM functions also measured in typical WMC tasks, although substitution skills may make an independent contribution to predicting higher mental abilities.

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“…Access to information held inside the focus of attention is immediate, whereas access to information outside the focus is slower and effortful (e.g., Cowan, 1994Cowan, , 2001. Although estimates of the number of items that can be held in the focus of attention range between one and four, there is strong evidence to indicate only a single item can be held in the focus of attention on the n-back (McElree, 2001;Verhaeghen & Basak, 2005) and n-count (Garavan, 1998) tasks. Therefore, performance in the n-back and n-count conditions where N = 2 requires controlled and effortful switching of attentional focus from one item to another.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, this view predicts that stress will impair effortful or controlled processing but leave intact processing that does not place heavy demands on attentional control. That is, stress should not impair performance that relies on chronically or immediately accessible information but should impair performance that relies on information that lies outside of the focus of attention (Garavan, 1998;McElree 2001;Verhaeghen & Basak, 2005). In a related line of reasoning, Boals (2001a, 2001b) have postulated that stress-related cognitions (i.e., intrusive thoughts, thought suppression) occupy attentional resources and thereby produce deficits in information processing that rely heavily on controlled attention (see also Eysenck & Calvo, 1992).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These tasks were selected in order to provide a method of testing the specificity of the attention-depletion hypothesis by showing stress-related deficits only on high-attention-demanding tasks, and no stress impairment on less demanding tasks. The first task was a variant of the n-back task (Awh et al, 1996) that is often used to assess working memory and attention switching (McElree, 2001;Verhaeghen & Basak, 2005). This version of the n-back consisted of displaying a sequence of single digits on a computer display and required participants to determine whether the displayed digit matched the nth digit back in the sequence (where n = 1 or 2).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Intraindividual coupling of daily stress and cognition.

Sliwinski¹,

Smyth²,

Hofer³

et al. 2006

Psychology and Aging

261

238

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Most psychological theories predict associations among processes that transpire within individuals. However, these theories are often tested by examining relationships at the between-persons (BP) rather than the within-persons (WP) level. The authors examined the WP and BP relationships between daily stress and daily variability in cognitive performance. Daily stress and cognitive performance were assessed on 6 occasions in 108 older adults and 68 young adults. WP variability in stress predicted WP variability in response times (RTs) on a 2-back working memory task in both younger and older adults. That is, RTs were slower on high-stress days compared with low-stress days. There was evidence of an amplified WP stress effect in the older adults on a serial attention task. There was no evidence of stress effects on simple versions of these tasks that placed minimal demands on working memory. These results are consistent with theories that postulate that stressrelated cognitive interference competes for attentional resources. Keywordsaging; cognition; working memory; stress; intraindividual variability There is impressive evidence of stable individual differences on cognitive measures, even across very long time spans (Deary, Whiteman, Starr, Whalley, & Fox, 2004). Accordingly, most theories of intellectual and cognitive function have focused on these stable individual differences for inferences regarding relationships among cognitive processes (e.g., Carroll, 1993). Despite impressive stability in intellectual functioning, individuals do vary in cognitive performance even over very short retest intervals (Hertzog, Dixon, & Hultsch, 1992;Li, Aggen, Nesselroade, & Baltes, 2001). Such "state-based" variability is often relegated to the domain of measurement error and viewed as both a theoretical and a methodological nuisance. However, a number of psychologists have argued that the focused study of intraindividual or within-persons (WP) cognitive variability is critical for understanding developmental cognitive changes (Hultsch & MacDonald, 2004;Nesselroade & Ram, 2004;Siegler, 1994). We concur with this view and hope to demonstrate that modeling WP cognitive variability can facilitate understanding of basic cognitive function.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Martin J. Sliwinski, Department of Psychology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244. mjsliwin@syr.edu. NIH Public Access NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptA number of researchers have postulated that trial-to-trial performance variability is a fundamental characteristic of both brain function and individual differences in human intelligence. Specifically, higher levels of cognitive variability correlate with lower levels of intelligence (Jensen, 1992;Rabbitt, Osman, Moore, & Stollery, 2001). A recent life span study (Li et al., 2004) demonstrated that trial-to-trial variability becomes increasingly predictive of fluid intelligence in older age. Such increased trial-to-trial variabilit...

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Working memory and focal attention.

Cited by 340 publications

References 82 publications

Working memory and flexibility in awareness and attention

Working memory and flexibility in awareness and attention

The components of working memory updating: An experimental decomposition and individual differences.

Intraindividual coupling of daily stress and cognition.

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