Attention and Memory

本研究的目标是建立注意和记忆之间关系的数学理论，解释注意如何控制信息流进入和离开记忆，以及记忆如何影响被注意的内容和被注意的方式。该理论是两种理论的结合，一个是关于注意的理论，一个是关于记忆检索的理论。之前的两种理论都关注于处理的速度。注意理论认为，世界上不同的刺激“竞相”成为注意的对象。第一个完成比赛的人吸引了人们的注意。检索理论与此类似，认为记忆中的不同痕迹会竞相成为需要检索的痕迹。第一个完成的被检索。新理论结合了这两种方法，将它们解释为对同一过程的不同观点。这个新理论对处理速度和在许多领域做出反应的概率进行了定量预测，包括注意力、记忆和分类。它之所以重要，是因为它整合了以前的方法，以它们的成功为基础，并提供了一个关于大部分人类认知的综合理论。

The goal of the proposed research is to develop a mathematical theory of the relationship between attention and memory, to explain how attention controls the flow of information into and out of memory, and how memory influences what is attended and how it is attended. The theory is a combination of two previous theories, one addressing attention and one addressing memory retrieval. Both of previous theories focus on the speed of processing. The attention theory argues that different stimuli in the world `race` to become objects of attention. The first one to finish the race captures attention. The retrieval theory is similar, arguing that different traces in memory race to become the one to be retrieved. The first one to finish gets retrieved. The new theory combines these two approaches, interpreting them as different perspectives on the same process. The new theory makes quantitative predictions about the speed of processing and the probability of responding in a number of domains, including attention, memory, and categorization. It is significant because it integrates previous approaches, building on their successes, and providing an integrated theory of a large part of human cognition.