Projects per year
Abstract
The effectiveness of distractor-filtering is a potentially important determinant of working memory capacity (WMC). However, a distinction between the contributions of distractor-filtering at WM encoding as opposed to filtering during maintenance has not been made and the assumption is that these rely on the same mechanism. Within 2 experiments, 1 conducted in the laboratory with 21 participants, and the other played as a game on smartphones (n = 3,247) we measure WMC without distractors, and present distractors during encoding or during the delay period of a WM task to determine performance associated with distraction at encoding and during maintenance. Despite differences in experimental setting and paradigm design between the 2 studies, we show a unique contribution to WMC from both encoding and delay distractor performance in both experiments, while controlling for performance in the absence of distraction. Thus, within 2 separate experiments, 1 involving an extremely large cohort of 3,247 participants, we show a dissociation between encoding and delay distractor-filtering, indicating that separate mechanisms may contribute to WMC.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 960-967 |
Journal | Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance |
Volume | 40 |
Issue number | 3 |
Early online date | 10 Feb 2014 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Keywords
- distraction
- distractor filtering
- working memory
- working memory capacity
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Dissociating distractor-filtering at encoding and during maintenance'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
-
Working memory and attention in the young adult and ageing human brain: distractor suppression and cortical-striatal loops
McNab, F. & Shapiro, K.
1/07/13 → 31/03/16
Project: Research