Central/cognitive load modulates peripheral/perceptual processing

• A long lasting debate in selective attention research revolves around the issue of whether irrelevant information is filtered at an early/perceptual processing stage or at a late/cognitive processing stage. Another long lasting debate concerns whether selective attention depends on a single, multi-purpose processing resource or whether it depends on several, independent processing resources. As a reaction to both debates, we have proposed a unified view of attention (Sörqvist, Stenfelt, & Rönnberg, 2012) whereby central/cognitive load modulates peripheral/perceptual processing. Moreover, the unified view of attention embodies a domain-general processing resource – called working memory capacity – that determines people’s capability for attentional/cognitive engagement. Here, we will present data from a recent experiment designed to critically examine this model. Participants undertook a visual-verbal version of the n-back task in various taskdifficulty conditions. Cortical processing of a background sound was measured with an fMRI protocol and individual differences in working memory capacity were measured with a package of three complex-span tasks. Our hypothesis is that higher task difficulty (in the n-back task) will be associated with increased prefrontal cortical activity and decreased auditory-temporal activity. Moreover, the magnitude of this effect should be related to individual differences in working memory capacity.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

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