The Attentional Boost Effect In the Conceptual Implicit Memory

Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2021-01-24

孟迎芳 董月晴 陈荃

Abstract： The Attentional Boost Effect (ABE) was first discovered by Swallow in 2010, which means that when subjects perform coding tasks and target detection tasks simultaneously, the memory performance of background information presented in target items is better than that presented in distracted items. Previous studies believe that this promotion effect is mainly due to the fact that target detection enhances the perceptual processing of background information, but many experimental results contrary to this perceptual processing enhancement hypothesis are also found, indicating that "target detection does not necessarily only promote the perceptual processing of background information". Can target detection promote semantic processing? If so, why is ABE not found in the implicit test task of concepts that relies on semantic information? We speculate that this may be related to the encoding tasks used in these experiments. Under the condition of reading words aloud, the subjects may only perform perceptual coding but not conceptual coding. If the time selective attention mechanism promotes cognitive processing simultaneously with target detection, ABE should appear in the following implicit conceptual tests when conceptual processing of words is performed simultaneously with target detection. This study will adopt Swallow and Jiang (2010) classic ABE paradigm, and further control the different processing types of memory materials in the encoding stage to explore whether target detection will promote the semantic processing of simultaneously presented background materials. In experiment one, lexical materials are used, and subjects are asked to read aloud words while performing target detection tasks in the encoding stage. Then, a perceptual priming test (true and false word judgment) and a conceptual priming test (semantic judgment) are completed. The experimental design is a 2*2 in-subject design. The results show that ABE effect only appears under the perceptual priming test condition, the priming amount under the target condition is significantly greater than that under the distraction condition, while under the conceptual condition, the priming amounts under the target condition and the distraction condition are not significantly different. On the basis of experiment one, experiments two and three will use vocabulary and picture materials respectively to further control the processing types of memory materials in the coding stage, including perceptual coding (vocabulary structure judgment, presence of white in pictures) and semantic coding (vocabulary, picture pleasure judgment). Then, only conceptual implicit test (semantic judgment) will be conducted to investigate whether the two coding methods will have different effects on ABE in subsequent conceptual implicit tests to verify whether target detection will promote semantic processing of background materials presented at the same time. The experimental designs are 2*2 in-subject designs. Both experiments two and three find that ABE effect only appears under the condition of semantic encoding, but not under the condition of perceptual encoding. The results show that in the process of dual task processing, target detection can not only promote the perceptual processing of background information, but also promote the semantic processing of background information. The promotion effect of target detection on background information is related to the processing of background information itself. Attention promotion is based on the existing coding of background information. In addition, the study also found that vocabulary and pictures have relative consistency in attention promotion effect.

Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review

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