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Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking
Published on: August 29, 2018
High stakes trigger the use of multiple memories to enhance the control of attention
Robert M G Reinhart1, Geoffrey F Woodman2
1Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, Center for Integrative & Cognitive Neuroscience, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
Abstract:
We can more precisely tune attention to highly rewarding objects than other objects in our environment, but how our brains do this is unknown. After a few trials of searching for the same object, subjects' electrical brain activity indicated that they handed off the memory representations used to control attention from working memory to long-term memory. However, when a large reward was possible, the neural signature of working memory returned as subjects recruited working memory to supplement the cognitive control afforded by the representations accumulated in long-term memory. The amplitude of this neural signature of working memory predicted the magnitude of the subsequent behavioral reward-based attention effects across tasks and individuals, showing the ubiquity of this cognitive reaction to high-stakes situations.
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