Attentional guidance by implicit learning and explicit goals

描述(申请人提供)：这个R03项目旨在分离两种形式的空间注意：由观察者的目标驱动的陈述性形式和由内隐学习驱动的程序性形式。与现有的将目标和内隐学习结合成一个 对于自上而下注意的单一来源，我们假设它们在几个维度上存在质的不同，包括空间参照系、对视觉工作记忆的依赖和任务专一性。我们提出了支持这一理论框架的三条行为工作路线。首先，我们考察了外显指令对内隐学习注意的大小和空间参照系的影响。一种单一系统的观点预测，显性指令应该增加内隐习得注意力的大小，并且显性指令应该调节用于编码被关注位置的坐标系。双重系统观点预测，外显知识对内隐习得注意力没有影响。其次，我们考察了增加视觉工作记忆负荷对目标驱动注意和内隐学习注意的影响。一种单一系统的观点预测，不断增加的工作记忆负荷应该会损害这两种形式的注意，但一种双重系统的观点预测，只有目标驱动的注意力对工作记忆负荷敏感。最后，我们测试了内隐学习注意在不同任务之间的转移。 如果隐含学习的注意力是程序性的，那么它不应该在视觉搜索之间转移变化检测或在两种类型的视觉搜索之间转移。但是，如果内隐学习在衡量空间位置的方式上产生了一般性的变化，那么它应该在任务之间转移。虽然许多研究表明，注意力可以根据不同的来源(如目标和刺激的显著程度)被引导到空间位置，但这些不同的信息来源以类似的方式引导注意力，当有多个来源可用时，往往会导致相加效应不足。相比之下，目前的建议表明，空间注意从根本上分为多种形式--陈述性和程序性。这种区别，尽管在研究中是明确的 关于记忆的问题，还没有提出要引起注意。未来的研究应该检查正常成年人的双重系统观的大脑基础，儿童的双重系统的发展，以及神经病和精神病患者每个系统的选择性损害。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This R03 project aims to dissociate two forms of spatial attention: a declarative form driven by an observer's goal and a procedural form driven by implicit learning. Contrary to existing theories that combine goals and implicit learning into a single source of top-down attention, we hypothesize that they differ qualitatively on several dimensions, including the spatial reference frame, reliance on visual working memory, and task specificity. We propose three lines of behavioral work to support this theoretical framework. First, we investigate the impact of explicit instructions on the magnitude and spatial reference frame of implicitly learned attention. A single-system view predicts that explicit instructions should increase the size of implicitly learned attention, and that explicit instructions should modulate the coordinate system used to code attended locations. A dual- system view predicts no effects of explicit knowledge on implicitly learned attention. Second, we examine the effect of increasing visual working memory load on goal-driven attention and implicitly learned attention. A single-system view predicts that increasing working memory load should impair both forms of attention, but a dual-system view predicts that only goal-driven attention is sensitive to working memory load. Finally, we test the transfer of implicitly learned attention between different tasks. If implicitly learned attention is procedural, then it should not transfer between visual search an change detection or between two types of visual search. But if implicit learning yields a generic change in how spatial locations are weighed, then it should transfer between tasks. Although many studies have shown that attention can be directed to spatial locations based on separate sources (e.g., goals and stimulus saliency), these separate sources of information guide attention in similar ways, often resulting in under-additive effects when multiple sources are available. In contrast, the current proposal suggests that spatial attention is fundamentally divided into multiple forms - declarative and procedural. This distinction, though clear in studies of memory, has not been proposed for attention. Future research should examine the brain basis of the dual-system view in normal adults, the development of the dual systems in children, and the selective impairment of each system in neurological and psychiatric patients.