scholarly journals The road to long-term memory: Top-down attention is more effective than bottom-up attention for forming long-term memories

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 765
Author(s):  
Edyta Sasin ◽  
Daryl Fougnie
Keyword(s):  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
The Road

scholarly journals The road to long-term memory: Top-down attention is more effective than bottom-up attention for forming long-term memories

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edyta Sasin ◽  
Daryl Fougnie
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Attentional Capture ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
The Road ◽  
Memory Traces ◽  
Better Than

AbstractDoes the strength of representations in long-term memory (LTM) depend on which type of attention is engaged? We tested participants’ memory for objects seen during visual search. We compared implicit memory for two types of objects—related-context nontargets that grabbed attention because they matched the target defining feature (i.e., color; top-down attention) and salient distractors that captured attention only because they were perceptually distracting (bottom-up attention). In Experiment 1, the salient distractor flickered, while in Experiment 2, the luminance of the salient distractor was alternated. Critically, salient and related-context nontargets produced equivalent attentional capture, yet related-context nontargets were remembered far better than salient distractors (and salient distractors were not remembered better than unrelated distractors). These results suggest that LTM depends not only on the amount of attention but also on the type of attention. Specifically, top-down attention is more effective in promoting the formation of memory traces than bottom-up attention.

Influence of Movement Expertise on Visual Perception of Objects, Events and Motor Action

2012 ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Essig ◽  
Oleg Strogan ◽  
Helge Ritter ◽  
Thomas Schack
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Perception ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Saliency Map ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Perceptual Skills ◽  
Control Learning

Various computational models of visual attention rely on the extraction of salient points or proto-objects, i.e., discrete units of attention, computed from bottom-up image features. In recent years, different solutions integrating top-down mechanisms were implemented, as research has shown that although eye movements initially are solely influenced by bottom-up information, after some time goal driven (high-level) processes dominate the guidance of visual attention towards regions of interest (Hwang, Higgins & Pomplun, 2009). However, even these improved modeling approaches are unlikely to generalize to a broader range of application contexts, because basic principles of visual attention, such as cognitive control, learning and expertise, have thus far not sufficiently been taken into account (Tatler, Hayhoe, Land & Ballard, 2011). In some recent work, the authors showed the functional role and representational nature of long-term memory structures for human perceptual skills and motor control. Based on these findings, the chapter extends a widely applied saliency-based model of visual attention (Walther & Koch, 2006) in two ways: first, it computes the saliency map using the cognitive visual attention approach (CVA) that shows a correspondence between regions of high saliency values and regions of visual interest indicated by participants’ eye movements (Oyekoya & Stentiford, 2004). Second, it adds an expertise-based component (Schack, 2012) to represent the influence of the quality of mental representation structures in long-term memory (LTM) and the roles of learning on the visual perception of objects, events, and motor actions.

scholarly journals The costs and benefits of top-down control over visual long-term memory encoding

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 877
Author(s):  
Christopher Sundby ◽  
Geoffrey Woodman ◽  
Keisuke Fukuda
Keyword(s):  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Memory Encoding ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Term Memory

The dynamics of cumulative knowledge

1997 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Leiser
Keyword(s):  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
Cumulative Learning ◽  
Cumulative Knowledge

Exploiting existing representations implies tapping an enormous domain, coextensive with human understanding and knowledge, and endowed with its own dynamics of piecewise and cumulative learning. The worth of Clark & Thornton's proposal depends on the relative importance of this dynamics and of the bottom-up mechanism they come to complement. Radical restructuring of theories and patterns of retrieval from long-term memory are discussed in the context of such an evaluation.

How long is long-term priming? Classification and action priming in the scale of days

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 1183-1199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolina Moutsopoulou ◽  
Christina Pfeuffer ◽  
Andrea Kiesel ◽  
Qing Yang ◽  
Florian Waszak
Keyword(s):  
Processing Time ◽  
Memory System ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
New Information ◽  
Stimulus Classification

Previous research has shown that stimulus–response associations comprise associations between the stimulus and the task (a classification task in particular) and the stimulus and the action performed as a response. These associations, contributing to the phenomenon of priming, affect behaviour after a delay of hundreds of trials and they are resistant against overwriting. Here, we investigate their longevity, testing their effects in short-term (seconds after priming) and long-term (24 hr and 1 week after priming) memory. Three experiments demonstrated that both stimulus–classification (S-C) and stimulus–action (S-A) associations show long-term memory effects. The results also show that retrieval of these associations can be modulated by the amount of engagement on the same task between encoding and retrieval, that is, how often participants performed this task between prime and probe sessions. Finally, results show that differences in processing time during encoding are linked to the amount of conflict caused during retrieval of S-C, but not S-A associations. These findings add new information to the existing model of priming as a memory system and pose questions about the interactions of priming and top-down control processes.

scholarly journals Enhancing long-term memory with stimulation tunes visual attention in one trial

2014 ◽  
Vol 112 (2) ◽  
pp. 625-630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. G. Reinhart ◽  
Geoffrey F. Woodman
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Medial Frontal Cortex ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Attentional Tuning

Scientists have long proposed that memory representations control the mechanisms of attention that focus processing on the task-relevant objects in our visual field. Modern theories specifically propose that we rely on working memory to store the object representations that provide top-down control over attentional selection. Here, we show that the tuning of perceptual attention can be sharply accelerated after 20 min of noninvasive brain stimulation over medial-frontal cortex. Contrary to prevailing theories of attention, these improvements did not appear to be caused by changes in the nature of the working memory representations of the search targets. Instead, improvements in attentional tuning were accompanied by changes in an electrophysiological signal hypothesized to index long-term memory. We found that this pattern of effects was reliably observed when we stimulated medial-frontal cortex, but when we stimulated posterior parietal cortex, we found that stimulation directly affected the perceptual processing of the search array elements, not the memory representations providing top-down control. Our findings appear to challenge dominant theories of attention by demonstrating that changes in the storage of target representations in long-term memory may underlie rapid changes in the efficiency with which humans can find targets in arrays of objects.

scholarly journals Evidence for Enhanced Long-term Memory in Professional Musicians and Its Contribution to Novel Word Learning

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Eva Dittinger ◽  
Betina Korka ◽  
Mireille Besson
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Music Training ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Novel Word Learning ◽  
Novel Words

Previous studies evidenced transfer effects from professional music training to novel word learning. However, it is unclear whether such an advantage is driven by cascading, bottom–up effects from better auditory perception and attention to semantic processing or by top–down influences from cognitive functions on perception. Moreover, the long-term effects of novel word learning remain an open issue. To address these questions, we used a word learning design, with four different sets of novel words, and we neutralized the potential perceptive and associative learning advantages in musicians. Under such conditions, we did not observe any advantage in musicians on the day of learning (Day 1), at neither a behavioral nor an electrophysiological level; this suggests that the previously reported advantages in musicians are likely to be related to bottom–up processes. Nevertheless, 1 month later (Day 30 [D30]) and for all types of novel words, the error increase from Day 1 to D30 was lower in musicians compared to nonmusicians. In addition, for the set of words that were perceptually difficult to discriminate, only musicians showed typical N400 effects over parietal sites on D30. These results demonstrate that music training improved long-term memory and that transfer effects from music training to word learning (i.e., semantic levels of speech processing) benefit from reinforced (long-term) memory functions. Finally, these findings highlight the positive impact of music training on the acquisition of foreign languages.

Conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) supports core claims of Christiansen and Chater

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary C. Potter
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Rapid Serial Visual Presentation ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Visual Presentation ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Use Of Knowledge

AbstractRapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of words or pictured scenes provides evidence for a large-capacity conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) that momentarily provides rich associated material from long-term memory, permitting rapid chunking (Potter 1993; 2009; 2012). In perception of scenes as well as language comprehension, we make use of knowledge that briefly exceeds the supposed limits of working memory.

Comparison of Auditory, Language, Memory, and Attention Abilities in Children With and Without Listening Difficulties

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 710-727
Author(s):  
Beula M. Magimairaj ◽  
Naveen K. Nagaraj ◽  
Alexander V. Sergeev ◽  
Natalie J. Benafield
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Memory And Attention ◽  
Speed And Accuracy

Objectives School-age children with and without parent-reported listening difficulties (LiD) were compared on auditory processing, language, memory, and attention abilities. The objective was to extend what is known so far in the literature about children with LiD by using multiple measures and selective novel measures across the above areas. Design Twenty-six children who were reported by their parents as having LiD and 26 age-matched typically developing children completed clinical tests of auditory processing and multiple measures of language, attention, and memory. All children had normal-range pure-tone hearing thresholds bilaterally. Group differences were examined. Results In addition to significantly poorer speech-perception-in-noise scores, children with LiD had reduced speed and accuracy of word retrieval from long-term memory, poorer short-term memory, sentence recall, and inferencing ability. Statistically significant group differences were of moderate effect size; however, standard test scores of children with LiD were not clinically poor. No statistically significant group differences were observed in attention, working memory capacity, vocabulary, and nonverbal IQ. Conclusions Mild signal-to-noise ratio loss, as reflected by the group mean of children with LiD, supported the children's functional listening problems. In addition, children's relative weakness in select areas of language performance, short-term memory, and long-term memory lexical retrieval speed and accuracy added to previous research on evidence-based areas that need to be evaluated in children with LiD who almost always have heterogenous profiles. Importantly, the functional difficulties faced by children with LiD in relation to their test results indicated, to some extent, that commonly used assessments may not be adequately capturing the children's listening challenges. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12808607

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