Attention and Memory

这个项目将开发和测试一种数学理论，该理论描述了注意力和记忆在获得自动技能和表现这些技能时的相互作用。该理论在一个共同的形式结构中结合了首席调查员开发的两个理论和之前的NSF支持。一种是注意力理论，它描述了如何选择刺激以及如何产生对这些刺激的反应。另一种是记忆理论，它描述了特定领域的知识库是如何在任务的广泛实践中建立起来的。这项研究由三个实证项目和一个理论项目组成，前者检验该理论关于学习、表征和实时加工的假设，后者扩展该理论并将其与记忆和认知控制的形式理论联系起来。该理论背后的基本思想是，注意力控制着对记忆的获取，决定了从经验中学到了什么，从记忆中提取了什么来支持各种任务的表现。记忆记录注意力选择的东西，注意力选择的东西充当提取线索，从记忆中提取与手头任务相关的信息。记忆也支配注意力，决定注意力从哪一组选项中进行选择。参与就是解释和分类，记忆提供分类。该理论表明，记忆和注意力之间的这种相互作用是无处不在的，发生在每一个认知行为中。因此，这一理论的范围很广。它的形式结构和与其他理论的形式关系赋予了它深度和广度。它可以对注意力和记忆之间的相互作用进行分析和定量预测。本文的研究具有重要的理论意义和实践意义。从理论的角度来看，它整合了对注意力和记忆的研究，揭示了以前被认为是分开的现象之间的定量和定性关系。它向统一的认知理论迈出了重要的一步，在一个共同的形式结构中提供了对许多重要现象的连贯描述。从实践的角度来看，该理论和为检验它而进行的实验将对培训和教育产生强烈的影响，为设计最大限度地推广(例如，从课堂到工作场所)并优化技能表现的培训计划提供了一种原则性的方法。“没有什么比好的理论更实用的了。”

This project will develop and test a mathematical theory that describes the interaction between attention and memory in the acquisition of automatic skills and in the expression of those skills in performance. The theory combines in a common formal structure two theories developed by the Principal Investigator with previous NSF support. One is a theory of attention that describes how stimuli are selected and how responses to those stimuli are generated. The other is a theory of memory that describes how a domain-specific knowledge base builds up over extensive practice on the task. The proposed research consists of three empirical projects that test the theory's assumptions about learning, representation, and real-time processing, and a theoretical project that extends the theory and relates it to formal theories of memory and cognitive control. The basic idea behind the theory is that attention governs access to memory, determining what is learned from experience and what is retrieved from memory to support performance on various tasks. Memory records the things that attention selects, and the things that attention selects act as retrieval cues, pulling from memory information relevant to the task at hand. Memory also governs attention, determining the set of alternatives that attention chooses among. To attend is to interpret and categorize, and memory provides the categories. The theory suggests that this interaction between memory and attention is ubiquitous, occurring in every act of cognition. Thus, the theory is broad in scope. Its formal structure and formal relations to other theories give it depth as well as breadth. It allows analytical, quantitative predictions of the interaction between attention and memory. The proposed research is significant theoretically and practically. From a theoretical perspective, it integrates research on attention and memory, revealing quantitative and qualitative relations between phenomena that were previously regarded as separate. It takes important steps toward a unified theory of cognition, providing a coherent account of many important phenomena in a common formal structure. From a practical perspective, the theory and the experiments conducted to test it will have strong implications for training and education, providing a principled way to design training programs that maximize generalization (e.g., from the classroom to the workplace) and optimize skilled performance. `There is nothing so practical as a good theory.`