Robison Matthew K, Unsworth Nash
Department of Psychology, 1227 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2017 Aug;79(6):1652-1665. doi: 10.3758/s13414-017-1335-4.
Across two experiments we examined individual differences in the use of precues and retrocues to guide the selective encoding and maintenance of information in visual working memory (WM). In Experiment 1, we used spatial cues to indicate which item would be tested either before or after the presentation of a memory array. Regression analyses allowed us to separate variance due to visual WM capacity and attention control differences. In Experiment 2, we used categorical cues to indicate from which subset of items the tested item would be drawn, and we measured attention control with two independent tasks. Collectively, the results supported the idea that an element of individual differences in WM is the ability to flexibly allocate attention to encode only relevant information and subsequently select relevant information during maintenance stages.
在两项实验中，我们研究了使用预线索和后线索来指导视觉工作记忆（WM）中信息的选择性编码和维持时的个体差异。在实验1中，我们使用空间线索来指示在记忆阵列呈现之前或之后将测试哪个项目。回归分析使我们能够区分由于视觉WM容量和注意力控制差异导致的方差。在实验2中，我们使用类别线索来指示测试项目将从哪个项目子集中抽取，并且我们用两个独立任务测量了注意力控制。总体而言，结果支持了这样一种观点，即工作记忆中个体差异的一个因素是能够灵活分配注意力，以便仅对相关信息进行编码，并随后在维持阶段选择相关信息。
