title: Dissociating distractor-filtering at encoding and during maintenance.
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.
authors: School of Psychology, University of Birmingham.
authors: Fiona
authors: F
authors: McNab
authors: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London.
authors: Raymond J
authors: RJ
authors: Dolan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult; D001205:Ascorbic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects; D001545:Benserazide / Q000494:pharmacology; D040421:Cell Phone; D035061:Control Groups; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D007980:Levodopa / Q000494:pharmacology; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000187:drug effects; D009949:Orientation / Q000187:drug effects; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000187:drug effects; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D015990:Placebo Effect; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D055139:Sensory Gating / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D001205:Ascorbic Acid; D001545:Benserazide; D007980:Levodopa