Olivers Christian N L, Roelfsema Pieter R
Institute of Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Experimental and Applied Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Department Vision & Cognition, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Department Integrative Neurophysiology, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands.
Cortex. 2020 Oct;131:179-194. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.07.011. Epub 2020 Aug 10.
From the conception of Baddeley's visuospatial sketchpad, visual working memory and visual attention have been closely linked concepts. An attractive model has advocated unity of the two cognitive functions, with attention serving the active maintenance of sensory representations. However, empirical evidence from various paradigms and dependent measures has now firmly established an at least partial dissociation between visual attention and visual working memory maintenance - thus leaving unclear what the relationship between the two concepts is. Moreover, a focus on sensory storage has treated visual working memory as a reflection of the past, with attention as a limiting resource. This view ignores what storage is for: immediate or future action. We argue that rather than serving sensory storage, attention emerges from coupling relevant sensory and action representations within working memory. Importantly, this coupling is bidirectional: First, through recurrent feedback mechanisms, action coupling results in the enhancement of the appropriate sensory memory representation. Under this view, unattended memories are currently not coupled to an action plan, but are not necessarily lost and remain available for future tasks when necessary. Second, through the very same feedback projections, attention serves as the credit assignment mechanism for the action's outcome. When the action is successful, the associated representations are being reinforced, leading to more robust consolidation and more rapid retrieval in the future - thus explaining performance benefits for attended memories without assuming that attention serves as the maintenance mechanism. By firmly grounding VWM in the action system, the new framework integrates a range of behavioural and neurophysiological findings and avoids circularity in explaining the role of attention in working memory.
从巴德利的视觉空间画板概念提出以来，视觉工作记忆和视觉注意力就一直是紧密相连的概念。一个有吸引力的模型主张这两种认知功能的统一性，认为注意力有助于感觉表征的主动维持。然而，来自各种范式和相关测量方法的实证证据现已确凿地证实，视觉注意力和视觉工作记忆维持之间至少存在部分分离——因此这两个概念之间的关系尚不明晰。此外，对感觉存储的关注将视觉工作记忆视为过去的一种反映，而将注意力视为一种有限的资源。这种观点忽略了存储的目的：即时或未来的行动。我们认为，注意力并非用于感觉存储，而是源于工作记忆中相关感觉和行动表征的耦合。重要的是，这种耦合是双向的：首先，通过循环反馈机制，行动耦合会增强适当的感觉记忆表征。按照这种观点，未被注意的记忆目前未与行动计划耦合，但不一定会丢失，在必要时仍可用于未来任务。其次，通过完全相同的反馈投射，注意力充当行动结果的信用分配机制。当行动成功时，相关表征会得到强化，从而在未来实现更稳固的巩固和更快的检索——这样就解释了被注意记忆的表现优势，而无需假设注意力充当维持机制。通过将视觉工作记忆牢固地置于行动系统中，新框架整合了一系列行为和神经生理学发现，避免了在解释注意力在工作记忆中的作用时出现循环论证。
