Attention, Memory and Cognitive Control

注意力、记忆力和认知控制

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-05003
• 负责人: Milliken, Robert
• 金额: $ 3.57万
• 依托单位: McMaster University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=611380
• 关键词: Attention; Memory; Cognitive; Control

The human brain supports an astonishing array of cognitive skills. Consider that routine tasks we perform with ease require us to perceive objects in the world around us, to assign meaning to those objects, to place objects into useful categories, to remember objects experienced in the past, and much more. Each of these cognitive skills, and more impressive the co-ordination of all of these skills, is often done with little or no effort on our part, as we focus on broader goals associated with the task at hand. Yet research on brain and behaviour has revealed that the mechanisms underlying these skills are complex. The research program described in this proposal focuses on mechanisms that support three particular cognitive skills, and the co-ordination among them. One of these skills is the ability to perceive and direct actions toward objects in the world around us, while a second skill is the ability to remember particular prior experiences. Both of these cognitive skills are widely known to depend on a third cognitive skill, the ability to pay attention selectively to just a subset of the events that compete for the control of our thought and action. Although the links between attention and perception on the one hand, and between attention and remembering on the other hand, are both well-established, the joint dependence of perception and remembering on attention raises a problem. Apparently, attention has (at least) two masters. Attention is recruited both in the service of perception and in the service of remembering. Without some form of co-ordination of attention for these two purposes, we ought to expect massive amounts of interference from one skill domain (perception) on the other (remembering), and vice versa. Indeed, experimental psychologists have discovered many methods for demonstrating that attention is limited in supply, and that the allocation of attention toward one goal can interfere with ongoing behaviour directed towards another goal. And yet, given this potential for interference, it is surprising that we routinely interleave perceiving and remembering in our everyday activities, as if co-ordinating these two activities is only mildly challenging. The primary aim of the proposed research program is to study the mechanisms that lead to this seemingly effortless co-ordination of attention for perception and attention for remembering. One general solution to this problem assumes that routine activities are supported by an automatic, effortless retrieval of similar experiences from the past. Retrieval of these experiences requires little attention, and indeed allows us to engage in one activity while thinking about another. Driving a car on an empty highway is an example of an activity that is often carried out while the mind wanders to thoughts unrelated to driving. At the same time, if something novel and unexpected occurs, attention is drawn to the unexpected event. This capture of attention seems to up-regulate the processing of details of our experience that would otherwise go unnoticed. Moreover, when asked about the highway trip upon arrival at our destination, we are unlikely to remember stretches of uneventful highway driving, and instead more likely to remember events during which our attention was captured by something out of the ordinary. The proposed research aims to explain this remarkable ability to interact effortlessly with the environment around us, while also adapting rapidly to situations that require additional attention.

人脑支持着一系列惊人的认知技能。考虑到我们轻松完成的日常任务需要我们感知周围世界的物体，为这些物体赋予意义，将物体放入有用的类别，记住过去经历过的物体，等等。当我们专注于与手头任务相关的更广泛的目标时，这些认知技能中的每一项，以及所有这些技能的更令人印象深刻的协调，通常都是在我们很少或根本不需要努力的情况下完成的。然而，对大脑和行为的研究表明，这些技能背后的机制是复杂的。