He Yang, Yang Tianqi, He Chunyan, Sun Kewei, Guo Yaning, Wang Xiuchao, Bai Lifeng, Xue Ting, Xu Tao, Guo Qingjun, Liao Yang, Liu Xufeng, Wu Shengjun
Department of Military Medical Psychology, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
Department of Nursing, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
Front Psychol. 2023 Feb 17;14:1080788. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1080788. eCollection 2023.
Approximately 94% of sensory information acquired by humans originates from the visual and auditory channels. Such information can be temporarily stored and processed in working memory, but this system has limited capacity. Working memory plays an important role in higher cognitive functions and is controlled by central executive function. Therefore, elucidating the influence of the central executive function on information processing in working memory, such as in audiovisual integration, is of great scientific and practical importance.
This study used a paradigm that combined N-back and Go/NoGo tasks, using simple Arabic numerals as stimuli, to investigate the effects of cognitive load (modulated by varying the magnitude of N) and audiovisual integration on the central executive function of working memory as well as their interaction.
Sixty college students aged 17-21 years were enrolled and performed both unimodal and bimodal tasks to evaluate the central executive function of working memory. The order of the three cognitive tasks was pseudorandomized, and a Latin square design was used to account for order effects. Finally, working memory performance, i.e., reaction time and accuracy, was compared between unimodal and bimodal tasks with repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA).
As cognitive load increased, the presence of auditory stimuli interfered with visual working memory by a moderate to large extent; similarly, as cognitive load increased, the presence of visual stimuli interfered with auditory working memory by a moderate to large effect size.
Our study supports the theory of competing resources, i.e., that visual and auditory information interfere with each other and that the magnitude of this interference is primarily related to cognitive load.
人类获取的约94%的感觉信息源自视觉和听觉通道。此类信息可在工作记忆中进行临时存储和处理，但该系统容量有限。工作记忆在高级认知功能中起重要作用，并受中央执行功能控制。因此，阐明中央执行功能对工作记忆中信息处理（如视听整合）的影响具有重大的科学和实际意义。
本研究采用一种结合N-back和Go/NoGo任务的范式，使用简单阿拉伯数字作为刺激，以研究认知负荷（通过改变N的大小进行调节）和视听整合对工作记忆中央执行功能的影响及其相互作用。
招募60名年龄在17 - 21岁的大学生，让他们执行单峰和双峰任务以评估工作记忆的中央执行功能。三项认知任务的顺序采用伪随机化，并使用拉丁方设计来解释顺序效应。最后，通过重复测量方差分析（ANOVA）比较单峰和双峰任务之间的工作记忆表现，即反应时间和准确性。
随着认知负荷增加，听觉刺激的存在在中等至较大程度上干扰了视觉工作记忆；同样，随着认知负荷增加，视觉刺激的存在对听觉工作记忆的干扰效应大小为中等至较大。
我们的研究支持竞争资源理论，即视觉和听觉信息相互干扰，且这种干扰的程度主要与认知负荷有关。
