Attention, Learning, and Memory: The Fluency of Processing

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To be able to attend, learn, and remember, we must possess a set of cognitive skills that permit us to select, encode, and retrieve information. These overarching skills are made up of processes, with the fluency of operation of these processes determining how well we process information. An obvious example of this general principle is the development of our language skills through extensive practice and experience. Research on attention, learning, and memory relies heavily on interference and facilitation to provide fundamental insight into the operation of cognitive processes. Irrelevant information must be ignored; if not, interference (slower and more error-prone responding) results. When previous relevant processing assists current processing, this is expressed as facilitation (faster and more accurate responding). This proposal describes a continuing program of research having as its goal the understanding of fluent information processing in the context of attention, learning, and memory. The proposed attention and learning research examines our ability to learn without awareness. New studies will explore the learning of relations in the world without the intention to learn them both at the level of behaviour and at the level of brain mechanisms. The proposed memory research features work on "the production effect": improved memory for information spoken aloud during study. What is the role of distinctiveness created during learning in assisting later remembering? Additional studies will explore fluency in learning and remembering in related situations and will emphasize the central role of context in memory, again both at the behavioural and brain levels. In the longer term, the proposed new research and the corresponding theoretical developments will build on my established research program and will lead both to a better overall understanding of the fluent processing underlying attention, learning, and memory, and to the development of practical skills -- such as improved study techniques -- for their optimization in everyday life.