Attention, Learning, and Memory: The Fluency of Cognitive Processing

总结*我们是由我们的注意力、学习和记忆的认知能力来定义的：它们造就了我们。这些最重要的能力反过来又由过程组成，这些过程是我们能力的基石，我们可以使用这些能力来选择、编码和检索信息。因此，这些过程的流畅性决定了我们管理和使用信息的程度，以及我们从经验中受益的程度。这一普遍原则的一个明显例子是通过广泛的练习发展我们的语言技能，以及幼儿如此迅速地发展出惊人的能力。*本提案描述了以理解流畅的信息处理为目标的持续研究计划的两个流派。要做到这一点，我们需要“工具”来理解基本流程是如何工作的。为了提供对认知过程运作的基本洞察，对注意力、学习和记忆的研究在很大程度上依赖于过程如何协同工作(促进)或竞争(干扰)。以前的经验什么时候会有帮助，什么时候会损害我们目前的处理过程？必须忽略不相关的信息；如果不忽略，则会导致干扰(响应速度较慢且更容易出错)。而当之前的相关加工辅助当前加工时，这表现为促进(更快、更准确的反应)。*拟议的学习研究是第一流。在这里，我们将检验我们以偶发事件的形式学习简单联想的能力。一个无关但相关的事件如何影响我们对目标事件的反应？我们如何学习和使用世界上的联系，即使我们并不打算这样做？注意力和意识在这种学习中扮演了什么角色？新的研究将探索在行为层面和潜在的大脑机制层面上学习世界上的关系。*拟议的记忆研究构成了第二个流派。在这里，我们将继续探索生产效应：改善学习时大声说出(或以其他方式产生)的信息的记忆。我们认为，在学习过程中形成的独特性有助于后来的记忆(我之所以记住这一点，是因为我记得曾大声说过)，但生产也只是帮助加强记忆吗？生产的价值是否会“溢出”到其他认知过程中，比如理解？同样，为了回答这些问题，将在行为和大脑层面进行研究。*我的研究计划的长期意义是更深入地理解这些基本认知技能的相互作用中的流利性，更全面地理解我们是如何参与、学习和记忆的。所获得的知识将为认知神经心理学和神经科学的工作提供信息，并将支持实际应用程序和技术的开发，以优化我们对这些技能的使用。**

SUMMARY******We are defined by our cognitive abilities of attending, learning, and remembering: They make us who we are. These overarching abilities are in turn made up of processesthe building blocks of our abilitiesthat we can use to select, encode, and retrieve information. Consequently, the fluency of these processes determines how well we manage and use information and how much we benefit from experience. An obvious example of this general principle is the development of our language skills through extensive practice, and the phenomenal facility that young children so quickly develop.***This proposal describes two streams of a continuing program of research that has as its goal the understanding of fluent information processing. To accomplish this, we need “tools” to understand how basic processes work. To provide fundamental insight into the operation of cognitive processes, research on attention, learning, and memory relies heavily on how processes work together (facilitation) or compete (interference). When does prior experience help and when does it hurt our current processing? Irrelevant information must be ignored; if not, interference (slower and more error-prone responding) results. And when previous relevant processing assists current processing, this is expressed as facilitation (faster and more accurate responding). ***The proposed learning research constitutes the first stream. Here, we will examine our ability to learn simple associations in the form of contingencies. How does an irrelevant but correlated event influence how we respond to a target event? How do we learn and use connections in the world, even when we are not intending to do so? What role do attention and awareness play in this kind of learning? New studies will explore the learning of relations in the world both at the level of behaviour and at the level of underlying brain mechanisms.***The proposed memory research constitutes the second stream. Here, we will continue to explore the production effect: improved memory for information spoken aloud (or produced in some other way) at the time of learning. We have argued that distinctiveness created during learning assists later remembering (“I remember that because I remember having said it aloud”) but does production also simply help to strengthen a memory? Does the value of production “spill over” onto other cognitive processes, such as comprehension? Again, studies will be carried out both at the behavioural and brain levels to answer these questions.***The long-term significance of my research program is a deeper understanding of fluency in the interplay of these fundamental cognitive skillsa greater overall comprehension of how we attend, learn, and remember. The knowledge gained will inform work in cognitive neuropsychology and neuroscience, and will support the development of practical applications and techniques that optimize our use of these skills. **