Multiple states of working memory:Reciprocity between internal maintenance and visual attention

Het werkgeheugen stelt ons in staat om waargenomen informatie vast te houden en te verwerken. Dit is essentieel voor verschillende taken in het dagelijkse leven. De hoeveelheid informatie die in het werkgeheugen kan worden vastgehouden is beperkt, en zodoende is het van belang dat we alleen relevante informatie vasthouden en dat irrelevante informatie onderdrukt wordt. In dit onderzoek is gekeken naar hoe de activatie van informatie in het werkgeheugen beïnvloedt wordt door verschillende taken. Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat de verwerking van de betekenis van een woord tot activatie in het werkgeheugen leidt. Deze activatie leidt ertoe dat onze aandacht automatisch getrokken wordt door nieuwe informatie die overeenkomt met de betekenis van het woord. Wanneer we dit woord niet hoeven te onthouden wordt de activatie uitgewist wanneer we onze aandacht nodig hebben voor een nieuwe taak, bijvoorbeeld het oplossen van een som. Als we het woord echter moeten onthouden, blijkt de activatie in stand te blijven na het uitvoeren van een dergelijke taak. Het onderzoek laat tevens zien dat mensen in staat zijn om werkgeheugen activatie snel te onderdrukken wanneer zij daartoe een instructie krijgen. Daarnaast toont het onderzoek aan dat we niet in staat zijn om de activatie van de verschillende eigenschappen van een object selectief te onderdrukken, bijvoorbeeld wanneer we alleen de kleur van het object proberen te onthouden. Tezamen laten deze bevindingen zien dat de activatie van informatie in het werkgeheugen flexibel en snel kan worden aangepast op basis van de vereisten van een taak

The role of depth of encoding in attentional capture

The aim of the current study was to examine whether depth of encoding influences attentional capture by recently attended objects. In Experiment 1, participants first had to judge whether a word referred to a living or a nonliving thing (deep encoding condition) or whether the word was written in lower- or uppercase (shallow encoding condition), and they then had to identify a digit displayed midway in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream of 8 pictures. A picture corresponding to the previously processed word was presented either before or after the target digit. The results showed that this picture captured attention, thus resulting in an attentional blink for identification of a target digit, in the deep encoding condition but not in the shallow encoding condition. In Experiment 2, this capture effect was found to be abolished when an additional working-memory (WM) task was performed directly after the word-judgment task, suggesting that the capture effect stemmed from residual WM activation that could be erased by means of a secondary WM task. Taken together, these results suggest that deep and shallow encoding result in different degrees of WM activation, which in turn influences the likelihood of memory-driven attentional capture

Forget me if you can:Attentional capture by to-be-remembered and to-be-forgotten visual stimuli

Previous studies on directed forgetting in visual working memory (VWM) have shown that if people are cued to remember only a subset of the items currently held in VWM, they will completely forget the uncued, no-longer relevant it ems. While this finding is indicative of selective remembering, it remains unclear whether directed forgetting can also occur in the absence of any concurrent to-be-remembered information. In the current study, we addressed this matter by asking participants to memorize a single object that could be followed by a cue to forget or remember this object. Following the cue, we assessed the object’s activation in VWM by determining whether a matching distractor would capture attention in a visual search task. The results showed that, compared to a cue to remember, a cue to forget led to a reduced likelihood of attentional capture by a matching distractor. In addition, we found that capture effects by to-be-remembered and to-be-forgotten dis tractors remained stable as the interval between the onset of the cue and the search task increased from 700 ms to 3900 ms. We conclude that, in the absence of any to-be-remembered objects, an instruction to forget an object held in WM leads to a rapid but incomplete deactivation of the representation of that object, thus allowing it to continue to produce a weak biasing effect on attentional selection for several seconds after the instruction to forget

Training modulates memory-driven capture

Attention is captured by information matching the contents of working memory. Though many factors modulate the amount of capture, there is surprising resistance to cognitive control. Capture occurs even when participants are instructed either that an item would never be a target or to drop that item from memory. Does the persistence of capture under these conditions reflect a rigidity in capture, or can properly motivated participants learn to completely suppress distractors and/or completely drop items from memory? Surprisingly, no studies have looked at the influence of extensive training of involuntary capture from working memory items. Here, we addressed whether training leads to a reduction or even elimination of memory-driven capture. After memorizing a single object, participants were cued to remember or to forget this object. Subsequently, they were asked to execute a search task. To measure capture, we compared search performances in displays that did and did not contain a distractor matching the earlier memorized object. Participants completed multiple experimental sessions over four days. The results showed that attentional capture by to-be-remembered distractors was reduced, but not eliminated in subsequent sessions compared with the first session. Training did not impact capture by to-be-forgotten objects. The results suggest observable, but limited, cognitive control over memory-driven capture

A survey on public awareness on the importance of gazetting the historical building in Terengganu and Kelantan / Teh Farhana Alias

Historical buildings are the most important assets that should be protected and taken care which it can be passed down to the future generations. In Malaysia where it is rich of its history in terms of architectural, social, and cultural and works of man. As it can be seen where the carving of the façade that have its own story by the craftsman. The historical building plays the important roles in defining the landmark within the urban area and also increasing the income of industry tourism where the historic building conservation and maintenance are needed to keep the condition of the building and prolong its life span. Realizing the importance of gazetting the historical building in Malaysia, this dissertation which titled ‘A Survey on Public Awareness on the Importance of Gazetting the Historical Building in Terengganu and Kelantan’ is documented.This research comprise of 6 chapters. This research focused on the historical building in Terengganu and Kelantan where it is a row of shoplots in Kampung Cina which has been demolished and redeveloped into a commercial building and Arked MPKB in Kota Bharu which also has been demolished and redeveloped into a commercial buildin

Pandemic boredom:Little evidence that lockdown-related boredom affects risky public health behaviors across 116 countries

Some public officials have expressed concern that policies mandating collective public health behaviors (e.g., national/regional "lockdown") may result in behavioral fatigue that ultimately renders such policies ineffective. Boredom, specifically, has been singled out as one potential risk factor for noncompliance. We examined whether there was empirical evidence to support this concern during the COVID-19 pandemic in a large cross-national sample of 63,336 community respondents from 116 countries. Although boredom was higher in countries with more COVID-19 cases and in countries that instituted more stringent lockdowns, such boredom did not predict longitudinal within-person decreases in social distancing behavior (or vice versa; n = 8,031) in early spring and summer of 2020. Overall, we found little evidence that changes in boredom predict individual public health behaviors (handwashing, staying home, self-quarantining, and avoiding crowds) over time, or that such behaviors had any reliable longitudinal effects on boredom itself. In summary, contrary to concerns, we found little evidence that boredom posed a public health risk during lockdown and quarantine. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved). </p

Intentions to be Vaccinated Against COVID-19:The Role of Prosociality and Conspiracy Beliefs across 20 Countries

Understanding the determinants of COVID-19 vaccine uptake is important to inform policy decisions and plan vaccination campaigns. The aims of this research were to: (1) explore the individual- and country-level determinants of intentions to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, and (2) examine worldwide variation in vaccination intentions. This cross-sectional online survey was conducted during the first wave of the pandemic, involving 6697 respondents across 20 countries. Results showed that 72.9% of participants reported positive intentions to be vaccinated against COVID-19, whereas 16.8% were undecided, and 10.3% reported they would not be vaccinated. At the individual level, prosociality was a significant positive predictor of vaccination intentions, whereas generic beliefs in conspiracy theories and religiosity were negative predictors. Country-level determinants, including cultural dimensions of individualism/collectivism and power distance, were not significant predictors of vaccination intentions. Altogether, this study identifies individual-level predictors that are common across multiple countries, provides further evidence on the importance of combating conspiracy theories, involving religious institutions in vaccination campaigns, and stimulating prosocial motives to encourage vaccine uptake.</p

Politicization of COVID-19 health-protective behaviors in the United States:Longitudinal and cross-national evidence

During the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. conservative politicians and the media downplayed the risk of both contracting COVID-19 and the effectiveness of recommended health behaviors. Health behavior theories suggest perceived vulnerability to a health threat and perceived effectiveness of recommended health-protective behaviors determine motivation to follow recommendations. Accordingly, we predicted that—as a result of politicization of the pandemic—politically conservative Americans would be less likely to enact recommended health-protective behaviors. In two longitudinal studies of U.S. residents, political conservatism was inversely associated with perceived health risk and adoption of health-protective behaviors over time. The effects of political orientation on health-protective behaviors were mediated by perceived risk of infection, perceived severity of infection, and perceived effectiveness of the health-protective behaviors. In a global cross-national analysis, effects were stronger in the U.S. (N = 10,923) than in an international sample (total N = 51,986), highlighting the increased and overt politicization of health behaviors in the U.S