title: Working memory and the suppression of reflexive saccades.
abstract: Conscious behavioral intentions can frequently fail under conditions of attentional depletion. In attempting to trace the cognitive origin of this effect, we hypothesized that failures of action control--specifically, oculomotor movement--can result from the imposition of fronto-executive load. To evaluate this prediction, participants performed an antisaccade task while simultaneously completing a working-memory task that is known to make variable demands on prefrontal processes (n-back task, see Jonides et al., 1997). The results of two experiments are reported. As expected, antisaccade error rates were increased in accordance with the fronto-executive demands of the n-back task (Experiment 1). In addition, the debilitating effects of working-memory load were restricted to the inhibitory component of the antisaccade task (Experiment 2). These findings corroborate the view that working memory operations play a critical role in the suppression of prepotent behavioral responses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. jmitchel@wjh.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Jason P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: C Neil
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Macrae
authors.forename: Iain D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Gilchrist
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012018:Reflex / Q000502:physiology*; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D014836:Volition / Q000502:physiology