QBI Neuroscience Seminar: Do attention and working memory use the same executive control resources?
Event Details
- Date:
- Wednesday, 18 February 2015
- Time:
- 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
- Room:
- QBI Level 7 Auditorium
- UQ Location:
- Queensland Brain Institute (St Lucia)
- URL:
- http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au/neuroscience-seminars
- Event category(s):
Event Contact
- Name:
- Ms Deirdre Wilson
- Phone:
- 66300
- Email:
- d.wilson5@uq.edu.au
- Org. Unit:
- Queensland Brain Institute
Event Description
- Full Description:
- Oscar Jakoby
The Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland
Title: Do attention and working memory use the same executive control resources?
Abstract:
To help us navigate our information-rich environment efficiently, the human brain has developed a set of cognitive processes to quickly identify behaviourally relevant stimuli, collectively referred to as selective attention. In vision, human observers can prioritise inputs based on physical features such as colour or shape, a process known as feature-based attention. For example, when looking for red apples, it is possible to set the visual system to prioritise anything that is red or round. It has been suggested that feature-based attention requires – and competes for – the same neural resources as those involved in storing and manipulating information over short timescales, a process known as working memory. I shall call this the “shared resource” model of attention and working memory. If the shared resource model is correct, feature-based attention should be impaired when observers are under high working memory load, and in individuals with a low working memory capacity. I tested these possibilities by having human observers monitor visual stimulus streams for targets defined by a particular feature value (e.g., red items). While observers performed these tasks, I took behavioural and electrophysiological measures of the extent of processing of distracting visual stimuli that either possessed or did not possess the target feature value. Distractors with task-relevant feature values were processed to a greater extent than distractors with other feature values, a hallmark of feature-based attention. Contrary to the shared-resource account, I found that these feature-based attention effects were not influenced by the amount of information observers were concurrently holding in working memory, or by their working memory capacity. These findings suggest that feature-based attention and working memory do not compete for the same neural resources, and are essentially independent cognitive mechanisms.
Directions to UQ
- Google Map:
-
- Directions:
- St Lucia Campus | Gatton campus.
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