Memory and Cognitive Control

“人鼠皆宜”的计划往往会导致“喜悦承诺”，因为这些计划能让人们专注于自己的行为，引导人们朝着重要的目标行动，避免分心。在国家科学基金会的支持下，洛根博士正在研究记忆中的计划如何指导个人在计划的各个步骤中工作时的想法和行动。其中一个项目关注的是“临时”计划，比如列出周末要做的家务活。特别计划的成功执行需要在内存中维护任意的任务列表，并在适当的时间检索适当的任务。这个项目的实验旨在检验不同类型的短期记忆(视觉、空间、语言)在维持临时计划中的作用，以及对其进行操作的不同类型的提取过程。第二个项目专注于长期记忆在执行熟悉的计划中的作用，而不是临时计划，比如泡一杯咖啡或开车下班回家。所有的计划一开始都是陌生的，因此必须依靠短期记忆。然而，在实践中，最武断的计划可能会成为第二天性，招募长期记忆来支持成功的表现。这个项目正在研究从短期记忆到长期记忆的转变以及伴随而来的提取过程的变化。第三个项目专注于将计划执行从一个步骤移到下一个步骤的过程，比如记住当前任务完成后要运行的下一个任务。这三个项目旨在促进我们对控制过程的理解，使个人能够在复杂的任务环境中连贯而灵活地行动。通过这样做，这项研究提供了一些基本知识，这些知识可能对设计复杂的任务环境，如船舶和发电厂的控制室，以及培训此类环境的操作员有用。

The "best laid plans of mice and men" often lead to "promised joy" because they provide focus to behavior, allowing individuals to direct actions toward important goals and avoid distraction. With support of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Logan is studying how plans held in memory guide thoughts and actions as individuals work through the steps of a plan. One project focuses on "ad hoc" plans, such as working through a list of chores to be done on a weekend. Successful execution of ad hoc plans requires the maintenance of arbitrary lists of tasks in memory, and the retrieval of appropriate tasks at appropriate times. Experiments in this project are aimed at examining the roles of different kinds of short-term memory (visual, spatial, verbal) in maintaining ad hoc plans, and the different kinds of retrieval processes that operate on it. A second project is focused on the role of long-term memory in executing familiar as opposed to ad hoc plans, such as making a cup of coffee or driving home from work. All plans are unfamiliar initially, and so must rely on short-term memory. However with practice, the most arbitrary plan can become second nature, recruiting long-term memory to support successful performance. This project is examining the transition from short-term memory to long-term memory and the changes in retrieval processes that accompany it. A third project is focused on the processes that move plan execution from one step to the next, as in remembering the next errand to run when the current one is finished. Together, the three projects are designed to advance our understanding of the control processes that enable individuals to act coherently and flexibly in complex task environments. In doing so, this research is providing basic knowledge that may be of use in designing complex task environments such as the control rooms of ships and power plants, and in training the operators of such environments.