Berti Stefan, Schröger Erich
Institut für Allgemeine Psychologie, Universität Leipzig, Seeburgstr 14-20, D-04103 Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Eur J Neurosci. 2003 Mar;17(5):1119-22. doi: 10.1046/j.1460-9568.2003.02527.x.
One function of working memory is to protect current mental processes against interference. In contrast, to be able to react flexibly on unpredictable environmental changes working memory should not totally be encapsulated from processing task unrelated information; that is, it should remain distractible. By manipulating the task load of the primary task in an auditory distraction paradigm we investigated how these opposing functions are coordinated by working memory. The behavioural results show that distraction effects were still present but reduced markedly with higher task demands. This suggests that working memory exerts some control over involuntary attention. In addition, event-related brain potentials related to the different processing stages reveal that the preattentive change detection system underlying distraction was not modulated by task demand whereas distraction per se was. The present data suggest that working memory is able to coordinate the maintenance of distractibility and the focus on the task at hand.
工作记忆的一个功能是保护当前心理过程免受干扰。相比之下，为了能够对不可预测的环境变化做出灵活反应，工作记忆不应完全与处理任务无关的信息隔离开来；也就是说，它应该保持易受干扰性。通过在听觉分心范式中操纵主要任务的任务负荷，我们研究了工作记忆如何协调这些相互对立的功能。行为结果表明，分心效应仍然存在，但随着任务要求的提高而显著降低。这表明工作记忆对非自愿注意施加了一定的控制。此外，与不同处理阶段相关的事件相关脑电位显示，分心背后的前注意变化检测系统不受任务需求的调节，而分心本身则受任务需求的调节。目前的数据表明，工作记忆能够协调易受干扰性的维持和对手头任务的关注焦点。
