The mechanisms of selective attention in phenomenal consciousness.
Salvatore G Chiarella, Luca Simione, Monia D'angiò, Antonino Raffone, Enrico Di Pace
Consciousness and cognition January 1, 2023 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2022.103446 via PubMed
Summary
Selective attention affects iconic memory and fragile-visual short-term memory (VSTM) in significant ways. Experiment 1 indicated that attentional costs increase visual maintenance at longer delays. In Experiment 2, reducing the memory array exposure from 250 ms to 100 ms hindered participants' ability to select objects based on priority. Experiment 3 revealed that a pattern mask before visual working memory transfer decreased overall performance but maintained the priority effect. These findings have implications for understanding phenomenal consciousness.
Study at a glance
| Key finding | Attentional costs modulate visual maintenance at longer delays, while reduced exposure time impairs object selection based on priorities. |
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Abstract
In three experiments we investigated the effects of selective attention in iconic memory and fragile-visual short-term memory (VSTM), which have been related to phenomenal consciousness. We used a novel retro-cue paradigm with different delays (early vs late) and object priorities (high vs equal vs low), to investigate (a) attentional costs and benefits and the role of (b) bottom-up factors and (c) fragile-VSTM in feature-based attentional selection. Experiment 1 showed that attentional costs modulate visual maintenance at longer delays, while Experiment 2 showed that by reducing the time exposure of the memory array from 250 ms to 100 ms, as a bottom-up factor, participants were not able to select the objects based on their priorities. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that a pattern mask presented before the transfer in visual working memory, attenuates the overall performance while preserving the priority effect. The implications for phenomenal consciousness before conscious access are discussed.