RESUMEN
Recent work has examined the interaction between space and time in memory search, but there is still limited understanding of this relationship. Here, we test the hypothesis that individuals can exert control over how time and space interact in response to subtle differences in task instructions. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed two experiments where participants completed two immediate free recall tasks, a verbal task involving words presented at a central location and a spatial task involving squares presented at different locations. Some participants were free to recall the words or locations spontaneously in any order they preferred. In contrast, another group was subtly biased toward temporal information by instructions to begin recall from the last presented item before recalling the remaining items in any order they wished. Replicating recent work, all conditions showed clear evidence that recall was organized along both the temporal and the spatial dimensions. Extending this work, we found that the subtle change in recall instructions increased the reliance on temporal information in the spatial recall task. Correlational analyses suggest that spatial and temporal information do not compete when participants search memory spontaneously. However, they do compete when instructions favor temporal information. These findings highlight that individuals can exert some cognitive control over how associative dimensions interact during memory search and emphasize the importance of incorporating such processes into theoretical models.
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Recuerdo Mental , Percepción Espacial , Humanos , Recuerdo Mental/fisiología , Adulto Joven , Adulto , Percepción Espacial/fisiología , Percepción del Tiempo/fisiología , Masculino , Femenino , Factores de Tiempo , Función Ejecutiva/fisiología , Memoria a Corto Plazo/fisiologíaRESUMEN
The spatial cueing effect (SCE) that is elicited by informative spatial cues serves as an empirical marker of attention shifts in the spatial cueing paradigm, and it has been widely interpreted to reflect a relatively pure form of top-down attention control. Contrary to this interpretation, the present study examined the extent to which the magnitude of the SCE could be due to learned associations between specific cues and shifts of attention to the corresponding location, while attempting to track potential changes in participants' task goals across the experiment. This was accomplished by using a novel two-choice, spatial cueing paradigm in which participants chose between two spatial validity contexts. One spatial validity context always involved a 25%-valid (uninformative) arrow cue - called the "test" context; whereas the alternate context - called the "inducing" context - was varied between groups. In particular, associations between specific cues and shifts of attention to the corresponding cued location were perfectly predictable in the "strong inducing" context (100%-valid arrow cues) and imperfectly predictable in the "weak inducing" context (70%-valid arrow cues). Consistent with the experience-dependent account, the results showed that the magnitude of the SCE observed in the test context increased as an individual's experience with the strong inducing context increased. Furthermore, these context effects were observed using both overlearned (arrow) and arbitrary (number) cues, as well as when eye movements were controlled. Altogether, these findings suggest that the magnitude of the SCE can be influenced directly by experience, and not by the top-down goals of the individual.
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Atención , Señales (Psicología) , Objetivos , Percepción Espacial , Humanos , Atención/fisiología , Percepción Espacial/fisiología , Adulto , Adulto Joven , Masculino , Femenino , Desempeño Psicomotor/fisiologíaRESUMEN
The nature of working memory capacity (WMC) has been a highly contested topic among cognitive scientists. Some advocate for the discrete nature of this construct, fixed to a set number of independent slots, each capable of storing a single chunk of bound information. Others advocate for a continuous limit, guided by a pool of immediately available resources spent across the to-be-remembered items. To understand the nature of WMC, it was first essential to separate capacity from other factors, such as performance consistency, which may impact overall WM performance. Recent work by Schor et al., (2020, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 27[5], 1006-1013) has provided a method for separating these constructs within a single visual array task. The present study used this statistical model to extract partial information, defined as accurate recall of a correct color, but not location, at a rate greater than expected through guessing. The successful memory of this information would demonstrate that capacity does not rely on the existence of empty slots, which discrete slot model advocates argue, are necessary for successful storage and recall of items. The present study found that participants were able to successfully recall partial information at a rate significantly greater than chance, but not beyond the individual working memory capacity limit. These findings help provide additional support for the discrete resource slot model, while simultaneously casting doubt on its strong object slot model alternative.
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Memoria a Corto Plazo , Percepción Visual , Humanos , Recuerdo MentalRESUMEN
The current set of studies examined the relationship among working memory capacity, attention control, fluid intelligence, and pupillary correlates of tonic arousal regulation and phasic responsiveness in a combined sample of more than 1,000 participants in two different age ranges (young adults and adolescents). Each study was designed to test predictions made by two recent theories regarding the role of the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system in determining individual differences in cognitive ability. The first theory, proposed by Unsworth and Robison (2017a), posits two important individual differences: the moment-to-moment regulation of tonic arousal, and the phasic responsiveness of the system to goal-relevant stimuli. The second theory, proposed by Tsukahara and Engle (2021a), argues that people with higher cognitive abilities have greater functional connectivity between the LC-NE system and cortical networks at rest. These two theories are not mutually exclusive, but they make different predictions. Overall, we found no evidence consistent with a resting-state theory. However, phasic responsiveness was consistently correlated with working memory capacity, attention control, and fluid intelligence, supporting a prediction made by Unsworth and Robison (2017a). Tonic arousal regulation was not correlated with working memory or fluid intelligence and was inconsistently correlated with attention control, which offers only partial support for Unsworth and Robison's (2017a) second prediction.
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Memoria a Corto Plazo , Norepinefrina , Humanos , Adolescente , Memoria a Corto Plazo/fisiología , Norepinefrina/fisiología , Locus Coeruleus/fisiología , Atención/fisiología , InteligenciaRESUMEN
Top-down information is known to play an important role in the control of visual attention. Often, evidence for top-down attention control is also interpreted as evidence for voluntary attention control. However, this latter theoretical interpretation is not warranted because volition is typically defined in terms of a conscious feeling that prior intentions led to a subsequent action, but this aspect of performance has not been assessed in previous studies. Accordingly, the present study used the construct of "agency" within the context of the spatial cuing paradigm to examine the relation between top-down and voluntary attention control. The results of two experiments consistently showed using growth-curve modeling that standard manipulations of top-down information in the spatial cuing paradigm do not have the same effect on all participants. In particular, the present findings showed that a slight majority of individuals (~60%) exhibited the expected pattern in which they reported feeling more agency when they performed visual search with the aid of an informative (arrow or onset) cue than when they performed this task with an uninformative cue or without any cue at all. However, more importantly, these findings also showed that a substantial number of individuals (~40%) exhibited the opposite pattern in which they reported feeling more agency when they performed visual search with an uninformative cue or without any cue at all. We conclude that the relation between top-down and voluntary attention control is not straightforward and must be studied using methods that are sensitive to individual differences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
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Señales (Psicología) , Volición , Humanos , Emociones , Estado de Conciencia , Individualidad , Tiempo de ReacciónRESUMEN
The present study is the first to examine individual differences in long-term memory, arousal dysregulation, and intensity of attention within the same experiment. Participants (N = 106) completed 28 lists of an immediate free-recall task while their pupil diameter was recorded via an eye-tracker during the encoding period. Two main pupillary measures were extracted: intraindividual variability in pre-list pupil diameter and evoked pupillary responses during item encoding. Variability in pre-list pupil diameter served as a measure of arousal dysregulation, and evoked pupillary responses served as a measure of intensity of attention. Based on prior work, we hypothesized that there would be a positive association between intensity of attention and recall ability, and that there would be a negative association between arousal dysregulation and recall ability. Collectively these two measures accounted for 19% of interindividual variance in recall, with 5% attributable uniquely to intensity of attention and 12% attributable uniquely to arousal regulation. The findings demonstrate that there are sources of individual differences in long-term memory that can be revealed via pupillometry, notably the amount of effort deployed during item encoding and the degree to which people exhibit dysregulated arousal. Both findings are consistent with recent theorizing regarding the role of the locus coeruleus (LC)-norepinephrine (NE) system's role in goal-directed cognition. Specifically, the LC governs both moment-to-moment arousal and NE release to cortical regions subserving cognitive processing. Among people for whom this system operates most optimally, long-term memory retention is superior.
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Individualidad , Pupila , Atención/fisiología , Cognición/fisiología , Humanos , Memoria a Largo Plazo , Norepinefrina/fisiología , Pupila/fisiologíaRESUMEN
Space and time are both essential aspects of human episodic memory. Yet, behavioral studies into the dynamics of recall have focused more on time than space. For instance, it is now well known that temporally contiguous events are more likely to be subsequently recalled than temporally remote events, as measured by the lag-conditional response probability (lag-CRP), which represents the probability of recalling item i + lag after recalling item i. The present study administered both verbal and spatial delayed free recall (DFR) tasks to a sample of 168 participants in order to measure lag-CRPs along both spatial and temporal associative dimensions. Whereas only the temporal lag-CRP could be measured in the verbal DFR task, both temporal and spatial lag-CRPs could be measured in the spatial DFR task. As expected, the results obtained in the verbal DFR task indicated the typical temporal contiguity effect. More importantly, the results obtained in the spatial DFR task indicated significant contiguity effects along both associative dimensions, and the spatial contiguity effect was found to be significantly larger than the temporal contiguity effect. In addition, the relatively small temporal contiguity effect observed in the spatial DFR task was also found to be significantly smaller than the temporal contiguity effect observed in the verbal DFR task. Altogether, the present findings provided novel evidence that spatial and temporal proximity can both cue sequential dependencies between successive recalls. As such, retrieved context models of episodic memory should be expanded to include spatial context as well as temporal context.
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Memoria Episódica , Humanos , Recuerdo Mental , Probabilidad , TiempoRESUMEN
The present study used information theory to quantify the extent to which different spatial cues conveyed the entropy associated with the identity and location of a visual search target. Single-distribution cues reflected the probability that the target would appear at one fixed location whereas joint-distribution cues reflected the probability that the target would appear at the location where another cue (arrow) pointed. The present study used a novel demand-selection paradigm to examine the extent to which individuals explicitly preferred one type of probability cue over the other. Although both cues conveyed equal entropy, the main results suggested representation of greater target entropy for joint- than for single-distribution cues based on a comparison between predicted and observed probability cue choices across four experiments. The present findings emphasize the importance of understanding how individuals represent basic information-theoretic quantities that underlie more complex decision-theoretic processes such as Bayesian and active inference.
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Atención , Señales (Psicología) , Teorema de Bayes , Humanos , Probabilidad , Tiempo de Reacción , Percepción Espacial , Incertidumbre , Percepción VisualRESUMEN
The maintenance capacity of working memory is known to be severely limited in scope. However, the reason this capacity varies across individuals remains unknown because it has proven difficult to estimate the maximum capacity of an individual's "scope of attention" (SoA) separate from their ability to achieve this maximum capacity due to temporary lapses in "attention control" (AC). The present study accomplished this separation by using a maximum likelihood framework to extract latent constructs representing SoA and AC from a whole-report version of the visual-array task. The results of two experiments (N = 145 and N = 189) showed that model fit was significantly greater when the model allowed both AC and SoA to vary across individuals relative to a model in which only AC was allowed to vary (and SoA was fixed). More importantly, the individual estimates of SoA and AC derived from this variable model suggested that (1) the observed range of SoA was found to be small across individuals, with 91% able to maintain a maximum of 3 or 4 items; (2) the consistency with which AC could be deployed was only weakly correlated with the magnitude of SoA; and (3) AC and SoA were both found to be significant predictors of fluid intelligence. Altogether, the present study clarified the nature of maintenance capacity and suggested that SoA and AC both need to be included in a mechanistic account of complex cognition.
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Atención/fisiología , Inteligencia/fisiología , Memoria a Corto Plazo/fisiología , Modelos Psicológicos , Percepción Visual/fisiología , Adulto , Femenino , Humanos , Individualidad , Masculino , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
Previous attempts to understand the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be limited by the tendency to focus exclusively on "externally directed cognition" (EDC) while ignoring "internally directed cognition" (IDC; Dixon, Fox, & Christoff, 2014. There is clear evidence that ADHD reflects deficiencies in EDC because of weaknesses in modulatory, motivational, and cognitive control constructs, but little is currently known about the integrity of IDC in ADHD. In the present study, we used a verbal episodic memory task involving immediate free recall to assess the integrity of EDC and IDC in a sample of 111 adolescents, 50 with study-confirmed diagnoses of ADHD and 61 without. The ADHD group was found to have significantly worse scores on outcomes that depend on EDC during encoding (serial position), and significantly better scores on outcomes that depend on IDC during retrieval (lag-conditional response probabilities). In addition, model parameters estimating the contribution of EDC and IDC processes were fit to these data using the retrieved context model of memory search. The model suggested that, during encoding, the ADHD group had slower mental context drift, indicative of weaker externally directed attention to the list items, as well as deficiencies in their ability to allocate and sustain attention when the study list first appeared. During retrieval, in contrast, the model suggested that the ADHD group had faster mental context drift indicative of stronger internally directed attention to retrieved context. These findings provide novel evidence that ADHD reflects impaired EDC and enhanced IDC, and they reinforce the clinical relevance of distinguishing EDC and IDC in future studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
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Trastorno por Déficit de Atención con Hiperactividad/psicología , Atención/fisiología , Memoria a Corto Plazo/fisiología , Adolescente , Análisis de Varianza , Trastorno por Déficit de Atención con Hiperactividad/diagnóstico , Niño , Cognición/fisiología , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Memoria Episódica , Motivación/fisiologíaRESUMEN
Perceptual load theory (Lavie, 1995) claims that visual selection is determined both by the perceptual demands a display imposes and by the perceptual resources an observer has available for processing. This theory is often tested by examining distractor interference in modified flanker tasks, which separate potential target locations from distractor locations and allow researchers to measure distractor processing. Although this task has provided significant insight into cognitive processing, it may also be an example of how a given task obscures potentially important experimental factors. Specifically, the structure of the target array could encourage observers to adopt a narrow attentional window, which could eliminate distractor interference as significant distractor processing has been shown to occur inside but not outside the attentional window (Belopolsky, Zwaan, Theeuwes, & Kramer, 2007). The present experiments included conditions that allowed the target to vary among the same locations as within a structured target array but varied possible nontarget locations that never overlapped with possible target locations. Whenever nontarget items remained in fixed locations, significant distractor processing occurred due to the observer adopting a wide attentional window even under high perceptual load conditions (Experiment 1). Further evidence showed that familiarity with these locations could not explain the interference (Experiment 2A). However, imposing a ring around the target array, similar to what a circular target array might impose, narrowed the attentional window and eliminated distractor interference (Experiment 2B). Thus, the size of the attentional window is capable of dominating both perceptual load and familiarity in visual selection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
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Atención/fisiología , Reconocimiento Visual de Modelos/fisiología , Desempeño Psicomotor/fisiología , Reconocimiento en Psicología/fisiología , Percepción Espacial/fisiología , Adulto , Humanos , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Overgeneral memory (OGM), difficulty in retrieving specific autobiographical memories, is a robust phenomenon related to the onset and course of depressive and posttraumatic stress disorders. Inhibitory mechanisms are theorized to underlie OGM; however, empirical support for this link is equivocal. The current study examines the differential roles of two aspects of inhibitory control in association with OGM: suppression of prepotent responses and resistance to proactive interference (PI). Only resistance to PI was expected to be negatively related to OGM, whereby individuals with greater ability to resist PI would have reduced OGM. METHOD: Participants (nâ¯=â¯49) completed a self-report measure of depressive symptoms and engaged in two tasks aimed at assessing resistance to PI and suppression of prepotent responses. Participants also completed a task assessing overgeneral autobiographical memory. RESULTS: As hypothesized, resistance to PI, but not suppression of prepotent responses negatively predicted OGM above and beyond the influence of depressive symptoms. LIMITATIONS: Because a double dissociation was not examined, we cannot address the potential independence of the submechanisms of inhibitory control that we assessed. CONCLUSIONS: Results exemplify the differential associations of two components of inhibition and OGM, suggesting that resistance to PI, in particular, may contribute to the development and/or maintenance of OGM and associated depressive disorders. Directions for future research are discussed.
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Depresión/fisiopatología , Inhibición Psicológica , Memoria Episódica , Recuerdo Mental/fisiología , Adolescente , Adulto , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
Here we propose a rational analysis account of voluntary symbolic attention control-the Least Costs Hypothesis (LCH)-that construes voluntary control as a decision between intentional cue use and unguided search. Consistent with the LCH, the present study showed that this decision is sensitive to variations in cue processing efficiency. In Experiment 1, observers demonstrated a robust preference for using "easy-to-process" arrow cues but not "hard-to-process" spatial word cues to satisfy an easy visual search goal; Experiment 2 showed that this preference persisted even when the temporal costs of cue processing were neutralized. Experiment 3 showed that observers reported this cue type preference outside the context of a speeded task, and Experiment 4 showed empirical measures of this bias to be relatively stable over the course of the task. Together with previous evidence suggesting that observers' decision between intentional cue use and unguided search is also influenced by variations in unguided search efficiency, these findings suggest that voluntary symbolic attention control is mediated by ongoing metacognitive evaluations of demand that are sensitive to perceived variations in the time, effort, and opportunity costs associated with each course of action. Thus, voluntary symbolic attention control is far more complex than previously held. (PsycINFO Database Record
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Atención/fisiología , Señales (Psicología) , Toma de Decisiones/fisiología , Función Ejecutiva/fisiología , Desempeño Psicomotor/fisiología , Percepción Espacial/fisiología , Percepción Visual/fisiología , Adulto , Humanos , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
INTRODUCTION: Existing evidence suggests that performance- and rating-based measures of working memory (WM) correlate poorly. Although some researchers have interpreted this evidence as suggesting that these measures may be assessing distinct cognitive constructs, another possibility is that rating-based measures are related to some but not all theoretically motivated performance-based measures. The current study distinguished between performance-based measures of primary memory (PM) and secondary memory (SM), and examined the relation between each of these components of WM and parent-ratings on the WM subscale of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF-WM). Because SM and BRIEF-WM scores have both been associated with group differences in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), it was hypothesized that SM scores would be uniquely related to parent-rated BRIEF-WM scores. METHOD: Participants were a sample of 77 adolescents with and without an ADHD diagnosis, aged 11 to 15 years, from a midwestern school district. Participant scores on verbal and spatial immediate free recall tasks were used to estimate both PM and SM capacities. Partial correlation analyses were used to evaluate the extent to which estimates of PM and SM were uniquely related parent-rated BRIEF-WM scores. RESULTS: Both verbal and spatial SM scores were significantly related to parent-rated BRIEF-WM scores, when corresponding PM scores were controlled. Higher verbal and spatial SM scores were associated with less frequent parent-report of WM-related failures in their child's everyday life. However, neither verbal nor spatial PM scores significantly related to parent-rated BRIEF-WM scores, when corresponding SM scores were controlled. CONCLUSION: The current study suggested that previously observed low correlations between performance- and rating-based measures of WM may result from use of performance-based WM measures that do not capture the unique contributions of PM and SM components of WM.
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Memoria a Corto Plazo , Memoria , Padres , Desempeño Psicomotor , Adolescente , Trastorno por Déficit de Atención con Hiperactividad/psicología , Niño , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Recuerdo Mental , Pruebas Neuropsicológicas , Memoria EspacialRESUMEN
The dual-component model postulates that working memory capacity consists of two dissociable components: maintenance in primary memory (PM) and retrieval from secondary memory (SM). Recent application of this model to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has revealed that the SM component is more deficient than the PM component across both verbal and spatial modalities. The present study attempts to strengthen this conclusion by addressing two weaknesses in the previous study. First, the present study shows that the SM component continues to be more deficient than the PM component across both modalities under conditions in which (1) all participants were instructed to use the same recall strategy (resulting in the exclusion of fewer participants); and, (2) individual differences in this strategy were controlled. Second, the present study also documents a group difference in word reading efficiency that is confounded with diagnostic status and that might have influenced estimates of PM and SM capacities in the verbal modality. However, although the SM component is more deficient than the PM component in the ADHD group, the magnitude of this interaction does not vary as a function task modality. These findings are interpreted to suggest that the pattern of WM deficiencies observed are part of a causal pathway that can lead to the symptoms of ADHD, as well as to impairments in reading (and intelligence) due to overlapping cue-dependent retrieval mechanisms. These findings provide additional support for the notion that the SM component of WM is an important and neglected target for treatment.
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Trastorno por Déficit de Atención con Hiperactividad/psicología , Cognición/fisiología , Trastornos de la Memoria/etiología , Memoria a Corto Plazo/fisiología , Adolescente , Niño , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Pruebas NeuropsicológicasRESUMEN
The immediate free recall (IFR) task has been commonly used to estimate the capacities of the primary memory (PM) and secondary memory (SM) components of working memory (WM). Using this method, the correlation between estimates of the PM and SM components has hovered around zero, suggesting that PM and SM represent fully distinct and dissociable components of WM. However, this conclusion has conflicted with more recent studies that have observed moderately strong, positive correlations between PM and SM when separate attention and retrieval tasks are used to estimate these capacities, suggesting that PM and SM represent at least some related capacities. The present study attempted to resolve this empirical discrepancy by investigating the extent to which the relation between estimates of PM and SM might be suppressed by a third variable that operates during the recall portion of the IFR task. This third variable was termed "strength of recency" (SOR) in the present study as it reflected differences in the extent to which individuals used the same experimentally-induced recency recall initiation strategy. As predicted, the present findings showed that the positive correlation between estimates of PM and SM grew from small to medium when the indirect effect of SOR was controlled across two separate sets of studies. This finding is important because it provides stronger support for the distinction between "component-general" and "component-specific" aspects of PM and SM; furthermore, a proof is presented that demonstrates a limitation of using regression techniques to differentiate general and specific aspects of these components.
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Trastorno por Déficit de Atención con Hiperactividad/fisiopatología , Memoria a Corto Plazo/fisiología , Recuerdo Mental/fisiología , Adolescente , Adulto , Niño , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Reconocimiento Visual de Modelos/fisiología , Lectura , Memoria Espacial/fisiología , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
Reference frames are ubiquitous in spatial cognition, and they have been especially important in the visual attention literature. Researchers typically invoke these constructs to explain how the same physical location can be defined in different ways depending on changes in the reference point. However, when researchers invoke reference frames for this purpose, they also tend to invoke a construct-the Cartesian coordinate system-that has a specific compositional structure. This conclusion may not be warranted though because reference frames can be used to define a location without being compositional in nature. The present study used an attention cuing paradigm to examine the potential consequences of encoding spatial locations within compositional (coordinate) spatial representations. Experiment 1 used 75% valid, compositional cues that conveyed separate information about the likely direction and distance of the target. The main results were consistent with the notion that a Cartesian coordinate reference system was used to interpret these cues which in turn elicited a compositional gradient that reflected the combined activation arising from the separate spatial dimensions. Experiment 2 ruled out an alternative account and Experiment's 3 and 4 examined the dynamic nature of these gradients over time. These findings were interpreted within a theory of conceptual control that distinguished between conceptual and perceptual representations of space. Conceptual representations are compositional and can be used to guide attention from one object to another. But conceptual representations depend on noncompositional, perceptual representations to bind the activations arising from their separate spatial dimensions, much like nonspatial feature dimensions do. (PsycINFO Database Record
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Atención/fisiología , Cognición/fisiología , Percepción Espacial/fisiología , Percepción Visual/fisiología , Señales (Psicología) , Humanos , Tiempo de Reacción/fisiologíaRESUMEN
The use of online crowdsourcing services like Amazon's Mechanical Turk (AMT) as a method of collecting behavioral data online has become increasingly popular in recent years. A growing body of contemporary research has empirically validated the use of AMT as a tool in psychological research by replicating a wide range of well-established effects that have been previously reported in controlled laboratory studies. However, the potential for AMT to be used to conduct spatial cuing experiments has yet to be investigated in depth. Spatial cuing tasks are typically very basic in terms of their stimulus complexity and experimental testing procedures, thus making them ideal for remote testing online that requires minimal task instruction. Studies employing the spatial cuing paradigm are typically aimed at unveiling novel facets of the symbolic control of attention, which occurs whenever observers orient their attention through space in accordance with the meaning of a spatial cue. Ultimately, the present study empirically validated the use of AMT to study the symbolic control of attention by successfully replicating four hallmark effects reported throughout the visual attention literature: the left/right advantage, cue type effect, cued axis effect, and cued endpoint effect. Various recommendations for future endeavors using AMT as a means of remotely collecting behavioral data online are also provided. In sum, the present study provides a crucial first step toward establishing a novel tool for conducting psychological research that can be used to expedite not only our own scientific contributions, but also those of our colleagues.
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Atención/fisiología , Investigación Biomédica/métodos , Colaboración de las Masas/métodos , Señales (Psicología) , Internet , Percepción Espacial/fisiología , Percepción Visual/fisiología , Adulto , Investigación Biomédica/normas , Colaboración de las Masas/normas , HumanosRESUMEN
Previous research suggests that the use of valid symbolic cues is sufficient to elicit voluntary shifts of attention. The present study interpreted this previous research within a broader theoretical context which contends that observers will voluntarily use symbolic cues to orient their attention in space when the temporal costs of using the cues are perceived to be less than the temporal costs of searching without the aid of the cues. In this view, previous research has not addressed the sufficiency of valid symbolic cues, because the temporal cost of using the cues is usually incurred before the target display appears. To address this concern, 70%-valid spatial word cues were presented simultaneously with a search display. In addition, other research suggests that opposing cue-dependent and cue-independent spatial biases may operate in these studies and alter standard measures of orienting. After identifying and controlling these opposing spatial biases, the results of two experiments showed that the word cues did not elicit voluntary shifts of attention when the search task was relatively easy but did when the search task was relatively difficult. Moreover, the findings also showed that voluntary use of the word cues changed over the course of the experiment when the task was difficult, presumably because the temporal cost of searching without the cue lessened as the task got easier with practice. Altogether, the present findings suggested that the factors underlying voluntary control are multifaceted and contextual, and that spatial validity alone is not sufficient to elicit voluntary shifts of attention.
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Atención/fisiología , Señales (Psicología) , Desempeño Psicomotor/fisiología , Percepción Espacial/fisiología , Percepción Visual/fisiología , Adulto , Humanos , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
This study examined the individual and combined effects of two nonpharmacological treatments for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): Cogmed working memory training (CWMT) for adolescents and behavioral parent training (BPT) for mothers. Ninety-one adolescents (ages 11-15) and their mothers were randomized to one of four CWMT and BPT treatment and active control (placebo) group combinations of 5-week interventions. At pre- and posttest, mothers and teachers completed rating forms, and adolescents completed neuropsychological measures of working memory (WM). Individual intervention effects showed that treatment CWMT significantly improved WM spans, whereas there were no significant differences for treatment or control BPT on reports of parent-related outcomes. Combined treatment effects indicated an overall pattern of greatest improvements for the control CWMT/treatment BPT group, as compared to the other three groups, on adolescent WM deficit, behavioral regulation problems, and global executive deficit. Most significant effects for outcomes were main effects of improvements over time. A combination of CWMT and BPT did not result in increased treatment gains. However, potential effects of combined treatment may have been masked by greater perceived benefits arising from lack of struggle in the nonadaptive, CWMT active control condition. Future combined intervention research should focus on specific, theoretically driven WM deficits among individuals with ADHD, should include possible adaptations to the standard CWMT program, should examine effectiveness of cognitive treatments combined with contextual interventions and should utilize appropriate control groups to fully understand the unique and combined effects of interventions.