Distraction during maintenance impairs working memory, with distractor processing inversely related to recognition accuracy¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2012 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Distractors presented during the maintenance period diminish WM performance, especially same-category distractors, and the degree of visual processing of irrelevant stimuli inversely correlates with subsequent recognition accuracy. → Gazzaley A 2012

Evidence¶

Gazzaley A 2012¶

Gazzaley A, Nobre AC. (2012). Top-down modulation: Bridging selective attention and working memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2011.11.014

q2 · i? · review · r2

Review synthesis of ERP and fMRI studies of delay-period distraction. The review reports that "Distractions presented during maintenance diminish WM task performance, especially when distractors are of the same category as memoranda", and that distractor processing inversely correlates with recognition accuracy.

"Distractions presented during maintenance diminish WM task performance, especially when distractors are of the same category as memoranda"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Attention — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Related Claims¶

• Age-related deficits in top-down modulation underlie much of older adults' working memory impairment — related
• Interesting but irrelevant details can impair comprehension and transfer, with effects that vary with the material and the learner — a broader claim this one bears on
• Older adults show performance decrements in divided-attention visual localization tasks, exacerbated by distractors and greater eccentricity, despite intact central-task performance — related
• In a visual search task, children recognize search-irrelevant features better than adults while relevant-feature recognition is comparable — related
• Older adults show greater distractibility than younger adults during episodic retrieval of long-term memory details — related
• Irrelevant visual stimuli present during a memory test diminish the fidelity of episodic details retrieved from long-term memory in younger adults — related
• rTMS of right IFJ causally reduces top-down modulation during encoding and working memory accuracy — related
• Retro-cues during maintenance dynamically modulate working memory representations and confer large performance benefits — related