Focused attention improves working memory: implications for flexible-resource and discrete-capacity models
Focused attention improves working memory: implications for flexible-resource and discrete-capacity models
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DOI：
10.3758/s13414-014-0687-2
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发表时间：
2014-10-01
影响因子：
1.7
通讯作者：
Oberauer, Klaus
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Souza, Alessandra S.;Rerko, Laura;Oberauer, Klaus
工作记忆（WM）任务的表现取决于存储对象的容量和对这些对象的注意力分配。在这里，我们探讨了如何需要扩大容量模型，以说明将注意力集中在回忆目标上的好处。参与者编码六个彩色磁盘（实验1）或一组一到八个彩色磁盘（实验2），并提示回忆色轮上目标的颜色。在无延迟条件下，回忆线索在1,000 ms的保留间隔后呈现，参与者可以立即报告检索到的颜色。在延迟条件下，回忆提示与无延迟条件下同时出现，但报告颜色的机会被延迟。在这个延迟期间，参与者可以将注意力完全集中在目标上。反应偏离目标的颜色在延迟比在无延迟条件。混合建模分配这种好处减少猜测（实验1和2）和换位错误（实验2）。我们测试了几个计算模型，实现灵活或离散的容量分配，旨在解释集大小的影响，反映有限的WM容量，和延迟的影响，反映注意力的作用WM表示。这两个模型更好地拟合数据时，空间梯度源的换位误差被添加到其假设。集中注意力的好处可以通过分配给这个对象更高比例的能力来解释。
Performance in working memory (WM) tasks depends on the capacity for storing objects and on the allocation of attention to these objects. Here, we explored how capacity models need to be augmented to account for the benefit of focusing attention on the target of recall. Participants encoded six colored disks (Experiment 1) or a set of one to eight colored disks (Experiment 2) and were cued to recall the color of a target on a color wheel. In the no-delay condition, the recall-cue was presented after a 1,000-ms retention interval, and participants could report the retrieved color immediately. In the delay condition, the recall-cue was presented at the same time as in the no-delay condition, but the opportunity to report the color was delayed. During this delay, participants could focus attention exclusively on the target. Responses deviated less from the target's color in the delay than in the no-delay condition. Mixture modeling assigned this benefit to a reduction in guessing (Experiments 1 and 2) and transposition errors (Experiment 2). We tested several computational models implementing flexible or discrete capacity allocation, aiming to explain both the effect of set size, reflecting the limited capacity of WM, and the effect of delay, reflecting the role of attention to WM representations. Both models fit the data better when a spatially graded source of transposition error is added to its assumptions. The benefits of focusing attention could be explained by allocating to this object a higher proportion of the capacity to represent color.