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Shifting attention among working memory representations: testing cue type, awareness, and strategic control
Marian E Berryhill1, Lauren L Richmond, Cara S Shay
1Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA. mberryhill@unr.edu
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)
|August 18, 2011
Summary
Retro-cues presented after encoding improve visual working memory (VWM) performance. This retro-cue benefit, particularly with arrow cues, is consciously perceived but not fully strategically controlled.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Visual working memory (VWM) performance is influenced by attentional cues during encoding.
- Retrospective cues, presented after encoding, also enhance VWM performance, a phenomenon known as the retro-cue benefit.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the sensitivity of the retro-cue benefit to different cue types.
- To determine participants' awareness of performance improvements due to retro-cues.
- To assess the degree of strategic control over the retro-cue effect.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Compared cueing benefits of bottom-up (abrupt onset), top-down (number), and mixed (arrow) retro-cues.
- Experiment 2: Assessed participant awareness of retro-cue-induced performance gains.
- Experiment 3: Examined strategic control by evaluating the difficulty of ignoring retro-cues.
Main Results:
- A significant retro-cue effect was observed exclusively with arrow retro-cues.
- Participants demonstrated awareness of performance improvements mediated by the informative retro-cue.
- The retro-cue proved difficult to ignore, indicating limited strategic control.
Conclusions:
- The retro-cue benefit is cue-type dependent, with mixed-attention cues (arrows) being most effective.
- While participants are aware of the retro-cue benefit, they exert minimal strategic control over its influence.
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