scholarly journals Increasing Working Memory Load Reduces Processing of Cross-Modal Task-Irrelevant Stimuli Even after Controlling for Task Difficulty and Executive Capacity

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon S. Simon ◽  
Erich S. Tusch ◽  
Phillip J. Holcomb ◽  
Kirk R. Daffner
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Task Irrelevant

The art of planning ahead: when do we prepare for the future and when is it effective? (under review)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Huijser ◽  
Niels Anne Taatgen ◽  
Marieke K. van Vugt
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Task Preparation ◽  
Memory Integration ◽  
The Future ◽  
Dual Task Paradigm ◽  
Consistent Support

Preparing for the future during ongoing activities is an essential skill. Yet, it is currently unclear to what extent we can prepare for the future in parallel with another task. In two experiments, we investigated how characteristics of a present task influenced whether and when participants prepared for the future, as well as its usefulness. We focused on the influence of concurrent working memory load, assuming that working memory would interfere most strongly with preparation. In both experiments, participants performed a novel sequential dual-task paradigm, in which they could voluntary prepare for a second task while performing a first task. We identified task preparation by means of eye tracking, through detecting when participants switched their gaze from the first to the second task. The results showed that participants prepared productively, as evidenced by faster RTs on the second task, with only a small cost to the present task. The probability of preparation and its productiveness decreased with general increases in present task difficulty. In contrast to our prediction, we found some but no consistent support for influence of concurrent working memory load on preparation. Only for concurrent high working memory load (i.e., two items in memory), we observed strong interference with preparation. We conclude that preparation is affected by present task difficulty, potentially due to decreased opportunities for preparation and changes in multitasking strategy. Furthermore, the interference from holding two items may reflect that concurrent preparation is compromised when working memory integration is required by both processes.

Verbal Working Memory Load Affects Regional Brain Activation as Measured by PET

1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 462-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Jonides ◽  
Eric H. Schumacher ◽  
Edward E. Smith ◽  
Erick J. Lauber ◽  
Edward Awh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Brain Activation ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Behavioral Performance ◽  
Executive Processes ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
The One ◽  
Reliable Increase

We report an experiment that assesses the effect of variations in memory load on brain activations that mediate verbal working memory. The paradigm that forms the basis of this experiment is the “n-back” task in which subjects must decide for each letter in a series whether it matches the one presented n items back in the series. This task is of interest because it recruits processes involved in both the storage and manipulation of information in working memory. Variations in task difficulty were accomplished by varying the value of n. As n increased, subjects showed poorer behavioral performance as well as monotonically increasing magnitudes of brain activation in a large number of sites that together have been identified with verbal working-memory processes. By contrast, there was no reliable increase in activation in sites that are unrelated to working memory. These results validate the use of parametric manipulation of task variables in neuroimaging research, and they converge with the subtraction paradigm used most often in neuroimaging. In addition, the data support a model of working memory that includes both storage and executive processes that recruit a network of brain areas, all of which are involved in task performance.

scholarly journals Neural Correlates of Task-related Refixation Behaviour

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radha Nila Meghanathan ◽  
Cees van Leeuwen ◽  
Marcello Giannini ◽  
Andrey R. Nikolaev
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Task Relevance ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Saccade Preparation

AbstractInformation uptake during scene viewing under free viewing conditions is crucially determined by the scanning plan. This plan is determined both by top-down and bottom-up factors. To capture top-down factors affecting saccade planning, we compared EEG between first fixations and refixations on items varying in task-relevance. First fixations and refixations impose different working memory costs because first fixations involve encoding of new items whereas refixations involve rehearsal of existing items in working memory. These memory requirements also differ with the task-relevance of the item being encoded. Together, these two factors of task-relevance and memory processes related to refixation behavior would affect saccade planning. In a visual task involving search and memorization of multiple targets, we compared saccade-related potentials (SRPs) between first fixations and refixations for task-relevant (target) and task-irrelevant (distractor) items. We assessed the interval preceding a saccade away from the fixation of interest. Studying this presaccadic interval revealed how mechanisms related to saccade preparation are affected by task-relevance and refixation behavior. We found higher SRP amplitudes for first fixations than refixations over the occipital region for task-relevant items only. Our findings indicate that saccade planning is modulated by both task-relevance of an item and working memory load.

scholarly journals Distinguishing cognitive effort and working memory load using scale-invariance and alpha suppression in EEG

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omid Kardan ◽  
Kirsten C. S. Adam ◽  
Irida Mance ◽  
Nathan W. Churchill ◽  
Edward K. Vogel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Scale Invariance ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Behavioral Performance ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Task Load ◽  
Set Size ◽  
Neural Signature

Despite being intuitive, cognitive effort has proven difficult to quantify. In the current study we validated the correspondence between scale-invariance (H) of cortical activity recorded by EEG and task load during two working memory (WM) experiments with varying set sizes. We used this neural signature to disentangle cognitive effort from the number of items in WM. Our results showed monotonic decreases in H with increased set size, even after set size exceeded WM capacity. This behavior of H contrasted with behavioral performance and an oscillatory indicator of WM load (i.e., alpha-band desynchronization), both of which showed a plateau at difficulty levels surpassing WM capacity. This is the first reported evidence for the suppression of scale-invariance in EEG due to task difficulty, and our work suggest that H suppression may be used to quantify changes in effort even when working memory load is constant and at maximum capacity.

Visual Search Facilitation in Repeated Displays Depends on Visuospatial Working Memory

2012 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela A. Manginelli ◽  
Franziska Geringswald ◽  
Stefan Pollmann
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Control Experiment ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Contextual Cueing ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Visuospatial Working Memory ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Memory Resources

When distractor configurations are repeated over time, visual search becomes more efficient, even if participants are unaware of the repetition. This contextual cueing is a form of incidental, implicit learning. One might therefore expect that contextual cueing does not (or only minimally) rely on working memory resources. This, however, is debated in the literature. We investigated contextual cueing under either a visuospatial or a nonspatial (color) visual working memory load. We found that contextual cueing was disrupted by the concurrent visuospatial, but not by the color working memory load. A control experiment ruled out that unspecific attentional factors of the dual-task situation disrupted contextual cueing. Visuospatial working memory may be needed to match current display items with long-term memory traces of previously learned displays.

A high working memory load eliminates the numerical distance effect

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin A. Maloney ◽  
Evan F. Risko ◽  
Derek Besner ◽  
Jonathan A. Fugelsang
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Distance Effect ◽  
Numerical Distance ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Numerical Distance Effect
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