Attention and Memory

注意力和记忆力

• 批准号: 9808971
• 负责人: Gordon Logan
• 金额: $ 25.5万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1998
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1998-09-01 至 2001-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9808971&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Attention; Memory

This project will develop and test a mathematical theory that describes the interaction between attention and memory in the acquisition of automatic skills and in the expression of those skills in performance. The theory combines in a common formal structure two theories developed by the Principal Investigator with previous NSF support. One is a theory of attention that describes how stimuli are selected and how responses to those stimuli are generated. The other is a theory of memory that describes how a domain-specific knowledge base builds up over extensive practice on the task. The proposed research consists of three empirical projects that test the theory's assumptions about learning, representation, and real-time processing, and a theoretical project that extends the theory and relates it to formal theories of memory and cognitive control. The basic idea behind the theory is that attention governs access to memory, determining what is learned from experience and what is retrieved from memory to support performance on various tasks. Memory records the things that attention selects, and the things that attention selects act as retrieval cues, pulling from memory information relevant to the task at hand. Memory also governs attention, determining the set of alternatives that attention chooses among. To attend is to interpret and categorize, and memory provides the categories. The theory suggests that this interaction between memory and attention is ubiquitous, occurring in every act of cognition. Thus, the theory is broad in scope. Its formal structure and formal relations to other theories give it depth as well as breadth. It allows analytical, quantitative predictions of the interaction between attention and memory. The proposed research is significant theoretically and practically. From a theoretical perspective, it integrates research on attention and memory, revealing quantitative and qualitative relations between phenomena that were previously regarded as separate. It takes important steps toward a unified theory of cognition, providing a coherent account of many important phenomena in a common formal structure. From a practical perspective, the theory and the experiments conducted to test it will have strong implications for training and education, providing a principled way to design training programs that maximize generalization (e.g., from the classroom to the workplace) and optimize skilled performance. `There is nothing so practical as a good theory.`

该项目将开发和测试一种数学理论，该理论描述注意力和记忆在获得自动技能以及在表演中表达这些技能时的相互作用。 该理论将首席研究员在先前 NSF 支持下开发的两种理论结合在一个共同的形式结构中。 一种是注意力理论，描述如何选择刺激以及如何产生对这些刺激的反应。 另一种是记忆理论，描述特定领域的知识库如何通过对任务的广泛实践来建立。 拟议的研究包括三个实证项目，测试该理论关于学习、表征和实时处理的假设，以及一个理论项目，扩展该理论并将其与记忆和认知控制的正式理论联系起来。 该理论背后的基本思想是，注意力控制对记忆的访问，决定从经验中学到什么，以及从记忆中检索什么来支持各种任务的表现。 记忆记录了注意力选择的事物，而注意力选择的事物充当检索线索，从记忆中提取与手头任务相关的信息。 记忆也控制注意力，决定注意力选择的一组选择。 参与就是解释和分类，而记忆提供了分类。 该理论表明，记忆和注意力之间的这种相互作用无处不在，发生在每一个认知行为中。 因此，该理论的范围很广泛。 它的形式结构以及与其他理论的形式关系赋予了它深度和广度。 它可以对注意力和记忆之间的相互作用进行分析、定量预测。 本研究具有重要的理论和实践意义。 从理论角度来看，它整合了注意力和记忆的研究，揭示了以前被认为是独立的现象之间的定量和定性关系。 它向统一认知理论迈出了重要的一步，为共同形式结构中的许多重要现象提供了连贯的解释。 从实践的角度来看，该理论和为测试该理论而进行的实验将对培训和教育产生重大影响，提供一种设计培训计划的原则性方法，最大限度地提高泛化性（例如，从课堂到工作场所）并优化技能表现。 “没有什么比好的理论更实用的了。”