Ahmed Lubna, de Fockert Jan W
Department of Psychology Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW, UK.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2012 Oct;74(7):1397-405. doi: 10.3758/s13414-012-0357-1.
Selective attention to relevant targets has been shown to depend on the availability of working memory (WM). Under conditions of high WM load, processing of irrelevant distractors is enhanced. Here we showed that this detrimental effect of WM load on selective attention efficiency is reversed when the task requires global- rather than local-level processing. Participants were asked to attend to either the local or the global level of a hierarchical Navon stimulus while keeping either a low or a high load in WM. In line with previous findings, during attention to the local level, distractors at the global level produced more interference under high than under low WM load. By contrast, loading WM had the opposite effect of improving selective attention during attention to the global level. The findings demonstrate that the impact of WM load on selective attention is not invariant, but rather is dependent on the level of the to-be-attended information.
已有研究表明，对相关目标的选择性注意依赖于工作记忆（WM）的可用性。在高WM负荷条件下，无关干扰项的加工会增强。在此我们发现，当任务需要全局而非局部水平的加工时，WM负荷对选择性注意效率的这种不利影响会发生逆转。要求参与者在保持WM低负荷或高负荷的同时，关注分层纳冯刺激的局部或全局水平。与之前的研究结果一致，在关注局部水平时，高WM负荷下全局水平的干扰项比低WM负荷下产生的干扰更多。相比之下，在关注全局水平时，WM负荷对选择性注意有相反的影响，即提高选择性注意。这些发现表明，WM负荷对选择性注意的影响并非一成不变，而是取决于待关注信息的水平。
