Episodic memory retrieval as attention turned inward

在教育、工业、军事、体育和日常生活等领域的许多人类行为中，注意力和记忆都是错综复杂地联系在一起的。这些过程是个体差异的主要来源，往往与心理和神经障碍有关。这个项目为这种联系提供了新的见解，重点关注注意和记忆检索的选择性，并测试了记忆检索是向内转向的知觉注意的猜想。本研究开发了新的实验程序，将研究知觉注意的方法应用于对记忆提取的理解。它提供了新的衡量标准——注意力集中在记忆上的清晰度，以及抵抗竞争记忆分散注意力的能力——这些在当前的方法中是无法实现的，在现有的理论中也没有涉及到。这项研究测试了选择性注意和记忆检索的新数学理论，这些理论规定了记忆列表是如何表示的，以及检索过程如何有选择地访问列表中的项目。这些理论表明，注意力和记忆恢复依赖于相同的数学原理。基于这些原理的计算机模拟再现了人类行为的关键模式。该研究的主要目标是开发经验支持的计算模型，为注意力和记忆之间相互作用的认知和神经基础提供更深入的见解。理解计算原理有助于整合和比较当前的注意力和记忆理论，这些理论解决了其他现象，如记忆编码或在输入或任务之间划分注意力。这个项目生成的材料、代码和数据对每个人都是开放的。本研究的一个更广泛的目标是为教育和工作场所的应用研究提供强有力的实证和理论基础，并提供基于理论的个体差异和临床障碍的新措施。这项研究最广泛的目标是通过无障碍出版物和参加讲习班和暑期学校，将获得的知识传播给广泛的受众，从非专业人士到科学家。受益者包括来自代表性不足群体的本科生，他们参与了研究过程的各个方面，从而鼓励他们从事科学事业。本项目通过采用Eriksen flanker任务（主要用于研究知觉注意）来测量选择性记忆检索，建立了注意力和记忆之间新的经验联系。新的情景侧翼任务衡量的是注意力集中在记忆上的敏锐度，以及抵抗侧翼物品分散注意力的能力。它要求受试者记住一个项目列表（例如，RFCKGL），并呈现一个探测显示，提示单个项目（例如，## c# ##）。受试者被要求指出提示的物品是否在记忆列表中处于相同的位置。通过呈现列表中与探测项目距离不同的不匹配项目（例如，## k# # vs ## l# #）来衡量它们对记忆的关注程度。在注意力焦点范围内的近处物品比在注意力焦点之外的远处物品更难被拒绝。通过呈现与记忆列表匹配（例如，RFCKGL）或不匹配（STCPXV）的侧翼字母，然后观察受试者如何有效地忽略侧翼字母，来测量对分心的抵抗。当提示和侧面的字母“指向”相同的反应时，表现会更好，而当它们指向相反的反应时，表现会更差。与目标相匹配的侧翼字母提高了“是”回答的表现，但损害了“否”回答的表现；与目标不匹配的侧翼字母会损害“是”响应的性能，而提高“否”响应的性能。改善和损害的大小反映了抵抗分心的能力。本研究将记忆提取的计算模型应用于情景侧客任务，将其提取线索解释为聚焦于记忆的注意聚光灯，并探讨其聚光灯是否能预测观察到的距离和兼容性效应，从而建立了注意和记忆之间新的理论联系。它将三种记忆模型（噪声编码、位置编码和项目编码）解释为三种经典的选择性注意方法（分别基于空间、基于对象和基于模板）的例子，将广泛的记忆理论和注意理论联系起来。提出的研究声称，检索和注意力是相同计算的不同名称，可以用相同的基础数学来解释。该研究用一系列广泛的项目来评估这一说法，从字母和单词到颜色和图片，包括短期和长期记忆的一系列时间尺度，以及利用相同表征的广泛任务，将序列回忆和线索回忆与情景侧念任务中的线索识别联系起来。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Attention and memory are intricately linked in many kinds of human performance across fields such as education, industry, the military, sports, and everyday life. These processes are major sources of individual differences that are often implicated in psychological and neurological disorders. This project offers new insights into the linkage, focusing on the selective nature of attention and memory retrieval, and testing the conjecture that memory retrieval is perceptual attention turned inward. The research develops new experimental procedures that apply methods for studying perceptual attention to the understanding of memory retrieval. It provides new measures -- of the sharpness of the focus of attention on memory, and the ability to resist distraction from competing memories -- that are not available in current methodologies and which are not addressed in extant theories. The research tests new mathematical theories of selective attention and memory retrieval that specify how memory lists are represented and how retrieval processes can access items in the list selectively. The theories show that attention and memory retrieval rely on the same mathematical principles. Computer simulations based on these principles reproduce critical patterns of human behavior. The primary goal of the research is to develop empirically supported computational models that provide deeper insights into the cognitive and neural basis of the interaction between attention and memory. Understanding the computational principles facilitates integration and comparison with current theories of attention and memory that address other phenomena, like memory encoding or dividing attention between inputs or tasks. The materials, code, and data generated by this project are openly available to everyone. A broader goal of the research is to provide a strong empirical and theoretical basis for applied research in education and the workplace and to provide new theory-based measures of individual differences and clinical disorders. The broadest goal of the research is to disseminate the acquired knowledge to a wide range of audiences, from lay people to scientists, through accessible publications and participation in workshops and summer schools. The beneficiaries included undergraduate students from underrepresented groups, who engage in all aspects of the research process, thus encouraging them to pursue careers in science.This project establishes new empirical connections between attention and memory by adapting the Eriksen flanker task (which is primarily used to study perceptual attention) to measure selective memory retrieval. The new episodic flanker task measures the sharpness of the focus of attention on memory and the ability to resist distraction from flanking items. It requires subjects to remember a list of items (e.g., RFCKGL) and presents a probe display that cues a single item (e.g., ##C###). Subjects are asked to indicate whether the cued item was in the same position in the memory list. The sharpness of their focus on memory is measured by presenting non-matching items from the list that differ in their distance to the probed item (e.g., ##K### vs. ##L###). Nearby items that fall within the focus of attention are harder to reject than distant items outside the focus. Resistance to distraction is measured by presenting flanking letters that match (e.g., RFCKGL) or mismatch (STCPXV) the memory list and subsequently observing how effectively subjects can ignore the flankers. Performance is better when cued and flanking letters “point” to the same response and is worse when they point to opposite responses. Flanking letters that match the target improve performance for “yes” responses but impair performance for “no” responses; flanking letters that mismatch the target impair performance for “yes” responses and improve performance for “no” responses. The size of the improvements and impairments reflects the ability to resist distraction. This research establishes new theoretical connections between attention and memory by adapting computational models of memory retrieval to the episodic flanker task, interpreting their retrieval cues as spotlights of attention focused on memory, and asking whether their spotlights predict the observed distance and compatibility effects. It interprets three memory models (noisy coding, position coding, and item coding) as examples of three classic approaches to selective attention (space-based, object-based, and template-based, respectively), connecting a broad range of memory theory and attention theory. The proposed research claims that retrieval and attention are different names for the same computations, explained by the same underlying mathematics. The research evaluates this claim with a broad range of items, from letters and words to colors and pictures, with a range of timescales that encompass both short-term and long-term memory, and with a broad range of tasks that tap the same representations, relating serial recall and cued recall to cued recognition in the episodic flanker task.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.