title: Attentional effects on orientation judgements are dependent on memory consolidation processes.
abstract: Are the effects of memory and attention on perception synergistic, antagonistic, or independent? Tested separately, memory and attention have been shown to affect the accuracy of orientation judgements. When multiple stimuli are presented sequentially versus simultaneously, error variance is reduced. When a target is validly cued, precision is increased. What if they are manipulated together? We combined memory and attention manipulations in an orientation judgement task to answer this question. Two circular gratings were presented sequentially or simultaneously. On some trials a brief luminance cue preceded the stimuli. Participants were cued to report the orientation of one of the two gratings by rotating a response grating. We replicated the finding that error variance is reduced on sequential trials. Critically, we found interacting effects of memory and attention. Valid cueing reduced the median, absolute error only when two stimuli appeared together and improved it to the level of performance on uncued sequential trials, whereas invalid cueing always increased error. This effect was not mediated by cue predictiveness; however, predictive cues reduced the standard deviation of the error distribution, whereas nonpredictive cues reduced "guessing". Our results suggest that, when the demand on memory is greater than a single stimulus, attention is a bottom-up process that prioritizes stimuli for consolidation. Thus attention and memory are synergistic.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of Waterloo , Waterloo , ON , Canada.
authors.forename: Christie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Haskell
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of Waterloo , Waterloo , ON , Canada.|b Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience, University of Waterloo , Waterloo , ON , Canada.
authors.forename: Britt
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Anderson
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D000069077:Memory Consolidation / Q000502:physiology*; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012691:Serial Learning / Q000502:physiology; D013334:Students; D014495:Universities
keywords: Memory; Spatial attention; Visual perception; Visual short-term memory; Visual working memory