The temporal dynamics of attention in visual working memory

• Grant number: 14/07716-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2014
• End date: December 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Cognitive Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Cesar Alexis Galera
• Grantee: Tamires Zar
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Our goal is to investigate the recovery of visual short-term information using the paradigm of retro-cues proposed by Griffin and Nobre (2003). This paradigm consists of a recognition task in which the participant, after storing a visual scene, is informed by a symbolic or a spatial retro-cue about the possible location of the test stimulus. Behavioral studies show information retrieval based on symbolic retro-cue is accompanied by an improvement equivalent to that which happens on tasks of guidance attention based on predictive symbolic cues. Studies from our laboratory have shown that the temporal dynamics of the recovery process based on symbolic retro-cue is equivalent to the temporal dynamics of focalized attention based on predictive symbolic cues. In this study we aim to evaluate the dynamics of recovery of visual short-term information based on direct retro-cues.