scholarly journals Content or status: Frontal and posterior cortical representations of object category and upcoming task goals in working memory

Cortex ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 135 ◽  
pp. 61-77
Author(s):  
Katya Olmos-Solis ◽  
Anouk M. van Loon ◽  
Christian N.L. Olivers
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Object Category ◽  
Task Goals ◽  
Cortical Representations

Working memory capacity and task goals modulate error-related ERPs

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. e12805 ◽  
Author(s):  
James R. Coleman ◽  
Jason M. Watson ◽  
David L. Strayer
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Task Goals ◽  
And Task

Successful navigation: the influence of task goals and working memory

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Meneghetti ◽  
Enia Labate ◽  
Enrico Toffalini ◽  
Francesca Pazzaglia
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Task Goals

scholarly journals Limits on visual awareness of object targets in the context of other object category masks: Investigating bottlenecks in the continuous flash suppression paradigm with hand and tool stimuli

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regine Zopf ◽  
Stefan R. Schweinberger ◽  
Anina N. Rich
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Visual Awareness ◽  
Continuous Flash Suppression ◽  
Object Category ◽  
Vocal Responses ◽  
Object Categories ◽  
Image Characteristics ◽  
Hand Tool ◽  
High Level ◽  
Cortical Representations

AbstractOur capacity to become aware of visual stimuli is limited. Investigating these limits, Cohen et al. (2015, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience) found that certain object categories (e.g., faces) were more effective in blocking awareness of other categories (e.g., buildings) than other combinations (e.g., cars/chairs) in the continuous flash suppression (CFS) task. They also found that more category-pair representational similarity in higher visual cortex was related to longer category-pair breakthrough times suggesting a high-level representational architecture bottleneck for visual awareness. As the cortical representations of hands and tools overlap, these categories are ideal to test this further. We conducted CFS experiments and predicted longer breakthrough times for hands/tools compared to other pairs. In contrast to these predictions, participants were generally faster at detecting targets masked by hands or tools compared to other mask categories when giving manual (Experiment 1) or vocal responses (Experiment 2). Furthermore, we found the same inefficient mask effect for hands in the context of the categories used by Cohen et al. (2015) and found a similar behavioural pattern as the original paper (Experiment 3). Exploring potential low-level explanations, we found that the category average for edges (e.g. hands have less detail compared to cars) was the best predictor for the data. However, these category-specific image characteristics could not completely account for the Cohen et al. (2015) category pattern or for the hand/tool effects. Thus, several low- and high-level object category-specific limits for visual awareness are plausible and more investigations are needed to further tease these apart.

The interaction of approach-alcohol action tendencies, working memory capacity, and current task goals predicts the inability to regulate drinking behavior.

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 649-661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason M. Sharbanee ◽  
Werner G. K. Stritzke ◽  
Reinout W. Wiers ◽  
Paul Young ◽  
Mike Rinck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Drinking Behavior ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Current Task ◽  
Task Goals ◽  
Action Tendencies

scholarly journals No Evidence that Smartphone Notifications Lead to Goal-Neglect

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niklas Johannes ◽  
Harm Veling ◽  
Moniek Buijzen
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Young People ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Goal Neglect ◽  
Modified Stroop ◽  
Current Task ◽  
Tentative Evidence ◽  
Task Goals

These days, young people report to be in a state of permanent alertness due to their smartphones. This state has been defined as smartphone vigilance, an awareness that one can always get connected to others in combination with a permanent readiness to respond to incoming smartphone notifications. We argue that receiving a notification makes users vigilant and activates goals (e.g., checking the message) that interfere with other goals needed to perform a task. We thus hypothesized that smartphone vigilance impairs maintenance of current task-goals in working memory, resulting in increased goal-neglect. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a preregistered experiment that examined the effect of smartphone vigilance (incoming notifications) on goal-neglect in a modified Stroop task. We found evidence that participants perceived notifications as distracting, but vigilance did not lead to increased goal-neglect. To the contrary, there was tentative evidence that vigilant participants performed better at the task.

scholarly journals Working memory implements distinct maintenance mechanisms depending on task goals

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes J. Fahrenfort ◽  
Jonathan Van Leeuwen ◽  
Joshua J. Foster ◽  
Edward Awh ◽  
Christian N.L. Olivers
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Recall Task ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
The Other ◽  
Informational Content ◽  
Current Task ◽  
Task Goals

AbstractWorking memory is the function by which we temporarily maintain information to achieve current task goals. Models of working memory typically debate where this information is stored, rather than how it is stored. Here we ask instead what neural mechanisms are involved in storage, and how these mechanisms change as a function of task goals. Participants either had to reproduce the orientation of a memorized bar (continuous recall task), or identify the memorized bar in a search array (visual search task). The sensory input and retention interval were identical in both tasks. Next, we used decoding and forward modeling on multivariate electroencephalogram (EEG) and time-frequency decomposed EEG to investigate which neural signals carry more informational content during the retention interval. In the continuous recall task, working memory content was preferentially carried by induced oscillatory alpha-band power, while in the visual search task it was more strongly carried by the distribution of evoked (consistently elevated and non-oscillatory) EEG activity. To show the independence of these two signals, we were able to remove informational content from one signal without affecting informational content in the other. Finally, we show that the tuning characteristics of both signals change in opposite directions depending on the current task goal. We propose that these signals reflect oscillatory and elevated firing-rate mechanisms that respectively support location-based and object-based maintenance. Together, these data challenge current models of working memory that place storage in particular regions, but rather emphasize the importance of different distributed maintenance signals depending on task goals.Significance statement (120 words)Without realizing, we are constantly moving things in and out of our mind’s eye, an ability also referred to as ‘working memory’. Where did I put my screwdriver? Do we still have milk in the fridge? A central question in working memory research is how the brain maintains this information temporarily. Here we show that different neural mechanisms are involved in working memory depending on what the memory is used for. For example, remembering what a bottle of milk looks like invokes a different neural mechanism from remembering how much milk it contains: the first one primarily involved in being able to find the object, and the other one involving spatial position, such as the milk level in the bottle.

Holding On to the Past: Older Adults Show Lingering Neural Activation of No-Longer-Relevant Items in Working Memory

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 1946-1962 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer C. Weeks ◽  
Cheryl L. Grady ◽  
Lynn Hasher ◽  
Bradley R. Buchsbaum
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Delay Interval ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobe ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Specific Pattern ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Task Goals

Goal-relevant information can be maintained in working memory over a brief delay interval to guide an upcoming decision. There is also evidence suggesting the existence of a complementary process: namely, the ability to suppress information that is no longer relevant to ongoing task goals. Moreover, this ability to suppress or inhibit irrelevant information appears to decline with age. In this study, we compared younger and older adults undergoing fMRI on a working memory task designed to address whether the modulation of neural representations of relevant and no-longer-relevant items during a delay interval is related to age and overall task performance. Following from the theoretical predictions of the inhibitory deficit hypothesis of aging, we hypothesized that older adults would show higher activation of no-longer-relevant items during a retention delay compared to young adults and that higher activation of these no-longer-relevant items would predict worse recognition memory accuracy for relevant items. Our results support this prediction and more generally demonstrate the importance of goal-driven modulation of neural activity in successful working memory maintenance. Furthermore, we showed that the largest age differences in the regulation of category-specific pattern activity during working memory maintenance were seen throughout the medial temporal lobe and prominently in the hippocampus, further establishing the importance of “long-term memory” retrieval mechanisms in the context of high-load working memory tasks that place large demands on attentional selection mechanisms.

scholarly journals Cortical Representations of Cognitive Control and Working Memory Are Dependent Yet Non-Interacting

2014 ◽  
pp. bhu208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian H. Harding ◽  
Ben J. Harrison ◽  
Michael Breakspear ◽  
Christos Pantelis ◽  
Murat Yücel
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cortical Representations
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