Partitioning Processes of Interference Control in Mind and Brain

认知过程通常被归类为自动的或受注意控制的。自动流程是正在进行的行为的重要组成部分，因为它们使我们不必仔细考虑我们面临的每一项任务。但这种非常自动化的行为给许多正在进行的行为带来了问题。我们遇到的许多刺激和我们面临的许多任务都是自动过程不是最适合当前情况的过程。当注意力经常被环境中不应该成为处理目标的显著刺激吸引时，编码就是如此。工作记忆也是如此，我们经常在工作记忆中存储与手头任务无关的信息。对于回应来说也是如此，当我们经常必须克服先发制人的回应才能在某些情况下做出正确的回应。理解人类如何能够克服他们的自动行为并参与更多受控的处理是至关重要的。100多年来，心理学实验和理论一直在努力理解知觉和记忆任务中干扰是如何控制和解决的。有一段时间，对干扰解决的主要观点基于这样的假设，即在各种情况下，只有一个机制负责抑制无关或分散注意力的信息。然而，其他研究导致了这样的观点，即抑制机制可能因任务而异。干扰解决机制如何可能与任务相似或不同？这就是激励本申请的问题。在国家科学基金会的资助下，约翰·乔尼德斯正在研究划分干扰解决机制的两个可选维度。一种观点认为，信息处理流程的不同阶段需要不同的干扰解决机制。正在测试的假设是，编码、工作记忆中的维持、反应选择和反应执行阶段的处理具有部分不重叠的机制，当存在需要控制的干扰时，这些机制被参与。第二个维度涉及所涉及的信息类型。有证据表明，在许多任务中，语言和空间信息是由不同的大脑机制处理的，而且对于这两种信息，干扰可能会得到不同的解决。这一假设将被检验，即当在必须控制干扰的任务中涉及语言和空间信息时，不同的机制被启动。这项研究计划将在五个领域感受到更广泛的影响。首先，将有一个研究研讨会，包括研究生和本科生，每周开会讨论与干扰解决有关的正在进行的研究。其次，这项研究将由从本科生研究机会计划中挑选出来的代表性不足的学生参与。第三，该研究计划将利用美国国家科学基金会资助的神经成像设施，作为教育学生了解神经成像方法的工具。第四，拟议的研究将导致发表论文和会议演讲，这些论文和会议演讲将传播实证结果，并记录基本理论的发展。最后，由于干扰解决过程对日常认知功能至关重要，拟议中的计划可能会导致训练方案的处方，可能会加强其中的一些过程。

Cognitive processes are often classified as either automatic or under attentional control. Automatic processes are an important component of ongoing behavior, because they free us from having to deliberate about every task that faces us. But this very automaticity creates a problem for many ongoing behaviors. Many of the stimuli we encounter and many of the tasks we face are ones in which an automatic process is not the one that is most appropriate to the present context. This is so for encoding, when attention is often drawn by salient stimuli in the environment that should not be the targets of processing. It is so for working memory, where we often have information stored that is irrelevant to the task at hand. And it is so for responding, when we often must overcome pre-potent responses to respond correctly in some situation. It is critical to understand how humans are able to overcome their automatic behaviors and engage in more controlled processing. For over 100 years, psychological experimentation and theory have grappled with understanding how interference is controlled and resolved in perceptual and memory tasks. For a time, the predominant view of interference-resolution rested on the assumption that there is a single mechanism responsible for inhibition of irrelevant or distracting information across a variety of circumstances. However, other research has led to the view that inhibitory mechanisms may vary from one task to another. How might the mechanisms of interference-resolution be similar to or different from task to task? That is the question that motivates the present application. With funding from the National Science Foundation, John Jonides is investigating two alternative dimensions to partition interference-resolution mechanisms. One rests on the proposal that different stages in the information-processing stream demand different mechanisms of interference-resolution. The hypothesis is being tested that encoding, maintenance in working memory, response selection, and response execution stages of processing have partially non-overlapping mechanisms that are engaged when there is interference that needs to be controlled. The second dimension concerns the type of information that is involved. There is evidence that verbal and spatial information are processed by different brain mechanisms in many tasks, and that interference may be resolved differently for the two types of information. The hypothesis will be tested that when there is verbal and spatial information involved in tasks for which interference must be controlled, different mechanisms are engaged. The broader impacts of this research program will be felt in five areas. First, there will be a research seminar including graduate and undergraduate students that meets weekly to discuss ongoing research concerned with interference-resolution. Second, the research will be conducted with the participation of underrepresented students chosen from the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program. Third, the research program will make use of an NSF-funded neuroimaging facility that will serve as a vehicle to educate students about neuroimaging methods. Fourth, the proposed research will result in published papers and conference presentations that will disseminate the empirical findings and document the development of the underlying theory. Finally, in that interference-resolution processes are critical to everyday cognitive functioning, the proposed program could lead to a prescription for training regimens that may strengthen some of these processes.