title: The lasting memory enhancements of retrospective attention.
abstract: Behavioral research has shown that spatial cues that orient attention toward task relevant items being maintained in visual short-term memory (VSTM) enhance item memory accuracy. However, it is unknown if these retrospective attentional cues ("retro-cues") enhance memory beyond typical short-term memory delays. It is also unknown whether retro-cues affect the spatial information associated with VSTM representations. Emerging evidence suggests that processes that affect short-term memory maintenance may also affect long-term memory (LTM) but little work has investigated the role of attention in LTM. In the current event-related potential (ERP) study, we investigated the duration of retrospective attention effects and the impact of retrospective attention manipulations on VSTM representations. Results revealed that retro-cueing improved both VSTM and LTM memory accuracy and that posterior maximal ERPs observed during VSTM maintenance predicted subsequent LTM performance. N2pc ERPs associated with attentional selection were attenuated by retro-cueing suggesting that retrospective attention may disrupt maintenance of spatial configural information in VSTM. Collectively, these findings suggest that retrospective attention can alter the structure of memory representations, which impacts memory performance beyond short-term memory delays.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA. Electronic address: sarahareaves@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reaves
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Strunk
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Agnes Scott College, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Shekinah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verhaeghen
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Audrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Duarte
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D057567:Memory, Long-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D065852:Spatial Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attention; Electroencephalogram; Long-term memory; Memory; Visual short term memory