Computational modeling of the negative priming effect based on inhibition patterns and working memory (original) (raw)

Inhibition in the Dynamics of Selective Attention: An Integrative Model for Negative Priming

2012

Abstract We introduce a computational model of the negative priming (NP) effect that includes perception, memory, attention, decision making, and action. The model is designed to provide a coherent picture across competing theories of NP. The model is formulated in terms of abstract dynamics for the activations of features, their binding into object entities, their semantic categorization as well as related memories and appropriate reactions.

Is Working Memory Load Irrelevant to Inhibitory Cognitive Control in Negative Priming?

Iris Publishers LLC, 2019

Two issues were addressed in this study. First, it addresses the viability of the assertion that working memory is crucial for reducing distraction by maintaining the prioritization of relevant over irrelevant information in visual selective attention tasks. The authors tested this hypothesis in an experiment involving a modified n-back task with attentional displays consisting of a distractor word superimposed on a target picture. Working memory load is deemed to be low in a 1-back task and relatively higher in a 2-back task. Here we report surprising results from 1- and 2-back versions of an n-back task with negative priming measures to assess the extent of distractor word processing. The second issue addressed a controversy in the negative priming literature involving whether it is possible to obtain negative priming effects with a large pool of stimuli, since it is generally thought that obtaining negative priming with words requires that words are encountered repeatedly as targets before becoming ignored distractors in the prime display of a prime-probe couplet. Thus, negative priming is ostensibly only produced when a relatively small pool of words is used, and these words exchange roles, acting as targets on some trials and distractors on others in the course of the task. Here, significant negative priming effects were observed despite using a large pool of stimuli and without ever having the distractor word appear as a target stimulus prior to the target probe on an ignored repetition trial. Possible resolutions to the opposing findings are provided.

The effects of working memory load on negative priming in an n-back task

tierra.aslab.upm.es

Two issues are addressed in this study. First, it addresses the viability of the assertion that working memory is crucial for reducing distraction by maintaining the prioritization of relevant over irrelevant information in visual selective attention tasks. The authors tested this hypothesis in an experiment involving a modified nback task with attention displays consisting of a distractor word superimposed on a target picture. Working memory load is deemed to be low in a 1-back task and high in a 2-back task. Here we report the results from 1-and 2-back versions of an n-back task using negative priming to assess the degree of distractor word processing. The second issue addressed a controversy in the negative priming literature involving whether it is possible to obtain negative priming effects with a large pool of stimuli. It is generally thought that in order to obtain negative priming effects it is necessary for stimuli to have been encountered repeatedly as targets before becoming an ignored distractor in the prime display of a prime-probe couplet. Thus, negative priming is ostensibly only produced when a relatively small pool of items is used, and these items exchange roles, acting as targets on some trials and distractors on others in the course of the task. In the present study, we report significant negative priming effects, despite using a large pool of stimuli and without the other aforementioned constraints. A possible resolution of the opposing findings is provided.

Top–Down Contingencies of Nonconscious Priming Revealed by Dual–Task Interference

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A, 2004

According to the direct parameter specification (DPS) account, reaction time effects of invisible primes depend on top–down control settings directed to targets (Neumann & Klotz, 1994). If this hypothesis holds, effects of invisible primes should decrease in dual–task as compared with single–task conditions: Prior to the primes control settings for the alternative task should be activated, which renders a match between target–directed control settings and primes less likely. In Experiments 1–2 and 4–5, a second task interfered with the validity effect of invisible primes. Control conditions ruled out several alternative explanations. Interference was not due to higher spatial memory loads (Experiments 1 vs. 2), increased numbers of stimuli or responses (Experiments 3–5), or increased response latencies (Experiment 3). If predictable, alternative tasks did not interfere (Experiment 3). The results are in line with the DPS account and less so with some classical definitions of automat...

Dissociable forms of repetition priming: a computational model

Neural computation, 2014

Nondeclarative memory and novelty processing in the brain is an actively studied field of neuroscience, and reducing neural activity with repetition of a stimulus (repetition suppression) is a commonly observed phenomenon. Recent findings of an opposite trend-specifically, rising activity for unfamiliar stimuli-question the generality of repetition suppression and stir debate over the underlying neural mechanisms. This letter introduces a theory and computational model that extend existing theories and suggests that both trends are, in principle, the rising and falling parts of an inverted U-shaped dependence of activity with respect to stimulus novelty that may naturally emerge in a neural network with Hebbian learning and lateral inhibition. We further demonstrate that the proposed model is sufficient for the simulation of dissociable forms of repetition priming using real-world stimuli. The results of our simulation also suggest that the novelty of stimuli used in neuroscientific research must be assessed in a particularly cautious way. The potential importance of the inverted-U in stimulus processing and its relationship to the acquisition of knowledge and competencies in humans is also discussed.

Where Memory Meets Attention: Neural Substrates of Negative Priming

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2005

& The negative priming (NP) effect refers to the observed increase in identification time for a current target stimulus or stimulus feature (the ''probe'') that has been employed as a distractor stimulus or stimulus feature on the previous trial (the ''prime''), representing strong evidence that ignored information is actively processed to a high level by selective attention systems. However, theoretical accounts of NP differ in whether they attribute the effect to processes of selective inhibition or episodic memory retrieval. Here we derived neurophysiological predictions from the rival ''selective inhibition'' and ''episodic retrieval'' models of NP, and employed event-related fMRI in a color-naming Stroop task to assess neural responses to probe trials that were subject to either no priming or negative priming. Compared to no-priming probe trials, NP resulted in increased activation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, in a region which has been closely linked with episodic memory retrieval functions. NP was also accompanied by activation of the right thalamus, particularly the mediodorsal nucleus, which has been implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, a condition associated with diminished NP effects. Our results support the proposal that ignored stimulus information is fully encoded in memory, and that episodic retrieval, not selective inhibition, of such information affects selective attention performance on subsequent trials. & D

Stimulus-feature specific negative priming

Memory & Cognition, 2001

We report the results of two experiments that showed that the time needed to respond to a feature of a stimulus increases when that particular feature of that particular stimulus previously had to be ignored. The data of Experiment 2 argue against the hypothesis that the observed stimulus-feature specific negative priming was due to a response conflict instigated by automatic episodic retrieval of prime responses. Experiment 2 also showed that the effects were not caused by difficulties in switching between prime and probe tasks and provided additional evidence for the fact that priming effects were stimulusfeature specific. The present results suggest that the selective inhibition or episodic encoding mechanisms that are assumed to underlie negative priming can operate in a more specific and powerful manner than has been previously assumed.

Inhibitory Control in Memory: Evidence for Negative Priming in Free Recall

Journal of Experimental Psychology-learning Memory and Cognition, 2012

Cognitive control mechanisms-such as inhibition-decrease the likelihood that goal-directed activity is ceded to irrelevant events. Here, we use the action of auditory distraction to show how retrieval from episodic long-term memory is affected by competitor inhibition. Typically, a sequence of to-be-ignored spoken distracters drawn from the same semantic category as a list of visually presented to-be-recalled items impairs free recall performance. In line with competitor inhibition theory (Anderson, 2003), free recall was worse for items on a probe trial if they were a repeat of distracter items presented during the previous, prime, trial (Experiment 1). This effect was produced only when the distracters were dominant members of the same category as the to-be-recalled items on the prime. For prime trials in which distracters were low-dominant members of the to-be-remembered item category or were unrelated to that category-and hence not strong competitors for retrieval-positive priming was found (Experiments 2 and 3). These results are discussed in terms of inhibitory approaches to negative priming and memory retrieval.