Attentional switch to memory: An early and critical phase of the cognitive cascade allowing autobiographical memory retrieval

Search flavor labels in beverages: An electrophysiological investigation of color-flavor congruency and association strength in visual search

Individuals are apt to link various characteristics of an object or event through different sensory experiences. We conducted two electrophysiological experiments to investigate the effects of color-flavor congruency and association strength on visual search efficiency and the in-depth cognitive mechanisms underlying multisensory processes. Participants were prompted with a flavor label and asked to identify the primed flavor from four beverage bottle images. Experiment 1 focused on color-flavor congruency and noted faster searches for congruent targets than incongruent ones. EEG data exhibited smaller N2, larger P3 and LPC, and increased parietal-occipital midline (POM) alpha power for incongruent targets than congruent ones. Experiment 2 manipulated color-flavor association strength within each flavor. Behavioral findings showed that searches for targets with weak association strength took longer than those with strong association strength. Moreover, time-frequency analysis displayed that the former evoked greater frontal midline (FM) theta power and higher alpha power than the latter. Altogether, our research indicated that (1) color expectations based on prior experience can automatically guide people's attentional selection, (2) the color-flavor congruency and association strength impact the visual search efficiency via distinct pathways, and (3) theta and alpha activities make a pivotal role in unraveling multisensory information processing. These findings shed some light on the intricate cognitive processes involved in crossmodal visual search and the underlying neurocognitive dynamics.

Shifting attention between perception and working memory

Most everyday tasks require shifting the focus of attention between sensory signals in the external environment and internal contents in working memory. To date, shifts of attention have been investigated within each domain, but shifts between the external and internal domain remain poorly understood. We developed a combined perception and working-memory task to investigate and compare the consequences of shifting spatial attention within and between domains in the service of a common orientation-reproduction task. Participants were sequentially cued to attend to items either in working memory or to an upcoming sensory stimulation. Stay trials provided a baseline condition, while shift trials required participants to shift their attention to another item within the same or different domain. Validating our experimental approach, we found evidence that participants shifted attention effectively in either domain (Experiment 1). In addition, we observed greater costs when transitioning attention between as compared to within domains (Experiments 1, 2). Strikingly, these costs persisted even when participants were given more time to complete the attentional shift (Experiment 2). Biases in fixational gaze behaviour tracked attentional orienting in both domains, but revealed no latency or magnitude difference for within- versus between-domain shifts (Experiment 1). Collectively, the results from Experiments 1 and 2 suggest that shifting between attentional domains might be regulated by a unique control function. Our results break new ground for exploring the ubiquitous act of shifting attention between perception and working memory to guide adaptive behaviour in everyday cognition.

We know what attention is!

Attention is one of the most thoroughly investigated psychological phenomena, yet skepticism about attention is widespread: we do not know what it is, it is too many things, there is no such thing. The deficiencies highlighted are not about experimental work but the adequacy of the scientific theory of attention. Combining common scientific claims about attention into a single theory leads to internal inconsistency. This paper demonstrates that a specific functional conception of attention is incorporated into the tasks used in standard experimental paradigms. In accepting these paradigms as valid probes of attention, we commit to this common conception. The conception unifies work at multiple levels of analysis into a coherent scientific explanation of attention. Thus, we all know what attention is.

Working memory capacity predicts focus back effort under different task demands

According to the cognitive flexibility view, individuals with higher cognitive control ability are more flexible in experiencing on task or mind wandering during tasks with different loads. On the other hand, the resource-control theory posits that executive control is essential for allocating attentional resources between mind wandering and tasks. Focus back effort may reflect the adjustment of executive control in the resource-control theory. Here, 121 participants completed two span tasks, as well as high- and low-load tasks, while mind wandering and focus back effort were measured. Our findings indicated that mind wandering was influenced by working memory capacity (WMC) and focus back effort. Additionally, participants demonstrated a higher focus back effort during the higher load task. This effect was particularly pronounced in individuals with lower WMC, which was treated as a continuous variable. These findings integrate the cognitive flexibility view and resource-control theory to describe how individuals modulate mind wandering.

Why and when do you look away when trying to remember? Gaze aversion as a marker of the attentional switch to the internal world during memory retrieval

It is common to look away while trying to remember specific information, for example during autobiographical memory retrieval, a behavior referred to as gaze aversion. Given the competition between internal and external attention, gaze aversion is assumed to play a role in visual decoupling, i.e., suppressing environmental distractors during internal tasks. This suggests a link between gaze aversion and the attentional switch from the outside world to a temporary internal mental space that takes place during the initial stage of memory retrieval, but this assumption has never been verified so far. We designed a protocol where 33 participants answered 48 autobiographical questions while their eye movements were recorded with an eye-tracker and a camcorder. Results indicated that gaze aversion occurred early (median 1.09 s) and predominantly during the access phase of memory retrieval-i.e., the moment when the attentional switch is assumed to take place. In addition, gaze aversion lasted a relatively long time (on average 6 s), and was notably decoupled from concurrent head movements. These results support a role of gaze aversion in perceptual decoupling. Gaze aversion was also related to higher retrieval effort and was rare during memories which came spontaneously to mind. This suggests that gaze aversion might be required only when cognitive effort is required to switch the attention toward the internal world to help retrieving hard-to-access memories. Compared to eye vergence, another visual decoupling strategy, the association with the attentional switch seemed specific to gaze aversion. Our results provide for the first time several arguments supporting the hypothesis that gaze aversion is related to the attentional switch from the outside world to memory.