Memory-Guided Selective Attention: An Instance Theory of Automatic Attentional Control

Cognitive control enables flexible goal-directed behavior via attention and action selection processes that prioritize goal-relevant over irrelevant information. These processes allow us to behave flexibly in the face of contradicting or ambiguous information and update behavior in response to the changing environment. Furthermore, they are thought to be in direct opposition to learned, automatic processing in that they enable us to disregard learned behaviors when they are inconsistent with our current goals. The strict dichotomy between stimulus-driven and goal-driven influences, however, has downplayed the role of memory in guiding attention. The position forwarded in this thesis is that a memory-based framework is needed to fully understand attentional control. People often re-encounter similar objects, tasks, and environments that require similar cognitive control operations. A memory-retrieval process could shortcut the slow, effortful, and resource-demanding task of updating control settings by retrieving and reinstating the control procedures used in the past. The aim of the current thesis is to empirically test general principles of an instance theory of automatic attentional control using a converging operations approach. In Chapter 2, I examine the obligatory nature of memory encoding by investigating context-specific proportion congruent effects in a non-conflict selective attention task. In Chapter 3, I examine the assumption of long-term instance-based representation by investigating long term single-trial effects in a context-cuing flanker paradigm. Finally, in Chapter 4 I examine how memory retrieval can influence context-specific attentional control in a context-specific proportion congruent task

Attention need not always apply: Mind wandering impedes explicit but not implicit sequence learning

According to the attentional resources account, mind wandering (or “task-unrelated thought”) is thought to compete with a focal task for attentional resources. Here, we tested two key predictions of this account: First, that mind wandering should not interfere with performance on a task that does not require attentional resources; second, that as task requirements become automatized, performance should improve and depth of mind wandering should increase. Here, we used a serial reaction time task with implicit- and explicit-learning groups to test these predictions. Providing novel evidence for the attentional resource account’s first prediction, results indicated that depth of mind wandering was negatively associated with learning in the explicit, but not the implicit, group, indicating that mind wandering is associated with impaired explicit, but not implicit, learning. Corroborating the attention resource account’s second prediction, we also found that, overall, performance improved while at the same time depth of mind wandering increased. From an implicit learning perspective, these results are consistent with the claim that explicit learning is impaired under attentional load, but implicit learning is not

Attention need not always apply: Mind wandering impedes explicit but not implicit sequence learning

All data, analysis code, experiment code, and manuscript preparation code for "Attention need not always apply: Mind wandering impedes explicit but not implicit sequence learning

Proactive and reactive cognitive control in the absence of learning and memory confounds: Evidence from a cross-modal trial-unique Stroop task

Goal-directed behaviour is typically conceptualized as striking a balance between two antagonistic cognitive control states such as proactive and reactive control, as demonstrated by conflict phenomena such as the list-wide proportion congruency and congruency sequence effects. However, control-based explanations for these phenomena have come under criticism due to low-level associative regularities that are frequently confounded with conflict manipulations within these experimental designs. In the current study, a novel Stroop paradigm referred to as the ‘trial-unique Stroop task’ was developed to examine whether these effects could be observed in the absence of low-level associative regularities. On each trial, participants typed a word they heard spoken aloud while ignoring a word visually displayed on the screen. Importantly, each word only appeared in a single trial throughout the experiment, and because stimuli and responses were never repeated, there were no low-level associative regularities across trials. Using this paradigm, I observed both congruency sequence (Experiment 1) and list-wide proportion congruency (Experiment 2) effects, providing the strongest evidence to date for control-based explanations of these phenomena. Split-half analyses revealed much higher reliability than traditional colour-word Stroop tasks for the congruency effect (rSB = .98), the congruency sequence effect (rSB = .42) and list-wide proportion congruency effect (rSB = .85). Moreover, the methodological advantages of the trial-unique Stroop task allow for the independent manipulation of task features related to control, learning, and memory processes. The promising results of this study support the application of the trial-unique Stroop task in this context and opens new avenues for future research

Context-specific attentional sampling: Intentional control as pre-requisite for contextual control.

Brosowsky, N.P., & Crump, M.J.C. (2016), Context-specific attentional sampling: Intentional control as pre-requisite for contextual control. Consciousness and Cognition, 44, 146-160

Cross-modal Stroop with trial-unique stimuli

Data, analysis, and experiment files for the manuscript: "Proactive and reactive cognitive control in the absence of learning and memory confounds: Evidence from a trial-unique Stroop task" You can view a demo of the online experiment here: https://attentionandlearninglab.com/demos/trial-unique-stroop/ The lab is currently creating a jsPsych plugin to use for the cross-modal Stroop presentation and will be available soo