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Two distinct mechanisms of selection in working memory: Additive last-item and retro-cue benefits.

  • Niklaus M University of Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Singmann H University of Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Oberauer K University of Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: k.oberauer@psychologie.uzh.ch.
  • 2018-12-15
Published in:
  • Cognition. - 2019
Attention
Focus of attention
Hierarchical-Bayes
Recency
Retro-cue
Speed-accuracy trade-off
Working memory
Adult
Attention
Cues
Female
Humans
Male
Memory, Short-Term
Psychomotor Performance
Reading
Recognition, Psychology
Signal Detection, Psychological
Young Adult
English In working memory research, individual items are sometimes said to be in the "focus of attention". According to one view, this occurs for the last item in a sequentially presented list (last-item benefit). According to a second view, this occurs when items are externally cued during the retention interval (retro-cue benefit). We investigated both phenomena at the same time to determine whether both result from the same cognitive mechanisms. If that were the case, retro-cue benefits should be reduced when the retro-cue is directed to the item that already benefits from being presented last. We measured speed-accuracy-tradeoff functions with the response-deadline paradigm to measure retrieval dynamics in a short-term recognition task. Across three experiments, we found that retro-cues benefited the last item and other items to the same extent. The additivity of the last-item benefit and the retro-cue benefit points towards the co-existence of at least two distinct forms of attentional prioritization in working memory.
Language
  • English
Open access status
green
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Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/4282
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