Attention and Memory

这项研究的目标是建立一个关于注意力和记忆之间关系的数学理论，解释注意力如何控制信息流入和流出记忆，以及记忆如何影响注意力和注意力。 该理论是两个先前的理论，一个解决注意力和一个解决记忆检索的组合。 这两种理论都侧重于处理速度。 注意力理论认为，世界上不同的刺激“竞相”成为注意力的对象。 第一个完成比赛的人会引起注意。 提取理论与此类似，认为记忆中的不同痕迹会竞相成为要提取的痕迹。 第一个完成的人会被取回。 新的理论结合了这两种方法，将它们解释为同一过程的不同视角。 这一新理论对处理速度和在注意力、记忆和分类等多个领域做出反应的概率做出了定量预测。 它之所以重要，是因为它整合了以前的方法，建立在他们的成功之上，并提供了一个关于人类认知的大部分的综合理论。

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.