An examination of individual differences in levels of processing.

The present study examined individual differences in levels of processing. Participants completed a cued recall task in which they made either rhyme or semantic judgements on pairs of items. Pupillary responses during encoding were recorded as a measure of the allocation of attentional effort and participants completed multiple measures of working and long-term memory. The results suggested levels of processing effect in both accuracy and pupillary responses with deeper levels of processing demonstrating higher accuracy and larger pupillary responses than shallower levels of processing. Most participants demonstrated levels of processing effect, but there was substantial variability in the size of the effect. Variation in levels of processing was positively related to individual differences in long-term memory and the magnitude of the pupillary levels of processing effect, but not working memory. These results suggest that some of the variation in levels of processing is likely due to individual differences in the allocation of attentional effort (particularly to items processed deeply) during encoding.

The influence of working memory capacity and lapses of attention for variation in error monitoring.

In two experiments, individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC), lapses of attention, and error monitoring were examined. Participants completed multiple WMC tasks along with a version of the Stroop task. During the Stroop, pupil diameter was continuously monitored. In both experiments, error phasic pupillary responses were larger than phasic pupillary responses associated with correct incongruent and correct congruent trials. WMC and indicators of lapses of attention were correlated with error pupillary response, suggesting that high WMC and low lapse individuals had enhanced error monitoring abilities compared with low WMC and high lapse individuals. Furthermore, in Experiment 2 error awareness abilities were associated with WMC, lapses of attention, and the error phasic pupillary responses. Importantly, individual differences in the susceptibility to lapses of attention largely accounted for the relationship between WMC and error monitoring in both experiments. Collectively, these results suggest that WMC is related to error monitoring abilities, but this association is largely due to individual differences in the ability to consistently maintain task engagement and avoid lapses of attention.

Effort Mobilization and Lapses of Sustained Attention.

The current study examined whether effort mobilization would enhance sustained attention and reduce lapses of attention. Participants performed a sustained attention task and were randomly assigned to either an effort condition where they were instructed to "Try Hard" on a subset of trials or were assigned to a control condition with no "Try Hard" instructions. Pupillary responses were continuously recorded, and periodically during the task participants were presented with thought probes to determine whether they were on or off task. The results suggested within the effort condition there were no behavioral differences between Try Hard and "Standard" trials. Preparatory pupil responses were increased in Try Hard trials, but there were no differences for phasic pupillary responses to stimulus onset. In contrast, examining differences between the effort and control conditions suggested that participants who received the Try Hard instructions demonstrated faster overall performance, a reduction in very long reaction times, and reported fewer off-task thoughts compared with participants in the control condition. Participants in the effort condition also demonstrated a larger ramp-up in pupillary responses during the preparatory interval and a larger phasic response to stimulus onset compared with participants in the control condition. These results are consistent with attention allocation models suggesting that participants in the effort condition mobilized more attentional effort than participants in the control condition, resulting in enhanced sustained attention and a reduction in lapses of attention. These results also are consistent with recent theories, which suggest that the locus coeruleus norepinephrine system is associated with effort mobilization.

Encoding dynamics in free recall: Examining attention allocation with pupillometry.

In four experiments pupillary responses were used to examine attention allocation and encoding dynamics in free recall. In Experiment 1, pupillary responses increased (and then decreased) across serial position suggesting that attention was increasingly allocated to items during learning until working memory was overloaded. In Experiment 2, manipulating presentation duration resulted in larger and more sustained pupillary responses with increased presentation duration, suggesting that participants were likely engaging in more elaborative and attention-demanding processes. In Experiment 3a, manipulating list-length resulted in decreased pupillary responses across serial position suggesting that participants were prioritizing early list items and less attention was allocated to later items. In Experiment 3b, when list-length was known, pupillary responses in the long-list length condition tended to decrease across serial position whereas pupillary responses in the short list-length condition tended to increase and decrease across serial positon. These results suggest that participants flexibly allocate attention to items during encoding depending on the nature of the task and the types of processes that are engaged in. These results further suggest the potential of utilizing pupillary responses to track attention allocation during learning.

Individual differences in baseline oculometrics: Examining variation in baseline pupil diameter, spontaneous eye blink rate, and fixation stability.

Individual differences in baseline oculometrics (baseline pupil diameter, spontaneous eye blink rate, fixation stability), and their relation with cognitive abilities, personality traits, and self-report assessments were examined. Participants performed a baseline eye measure in which they were instructed to stare at a fixation point onscreen for 5 min. Following the baseline eye measure, participants completed a questionnaire asking what they were thinking about during the baseline eye measure. Participants also completed various cognitive ability measures assessing working memory capacity, attention control, and off-task thinking. Finally, participants completed a number of questionnaires assessing personality, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder symptomology, mind wandering, and morningness-eveningness. Overall, the vast majority of correlations with the baseline eye measures were weak and nonsignificant, suggesting that these associations may not be very robust. The results also demonstrated the importance of examining what participants are thinking about during the baseline measure. These results add to the growing body of findings suggesting inconsistent relations between different baseline eye measures and various individual differences constructs.

Examining the effects of probe frequency, response options, and framing within the thought-probe method.

A recent surge of interest in the empirical measurement of mind-wandering has led to an increase in the use of thought-probing to measure attentional states, which has led to large variation in methodologies across studies (Weinstein in Behavior Research Methods, 50, 642-661, 2018). Three sources of variation in methodology include the frequency of thought probes during a task, the number of response options provided for each probe, and the way in which various attentional states are framed during the task instructions. Method variation can potentially affect behavioral performance on the tasks in which thought probes are embedded, the experience of various attentional states within those tasks, and/or response biases to the thought probes. Therefore, such variation can be problematic, both pragmatically and theoretically. Across three experiments, we examined how manipulating probe frequency, response options, and framing affected behavioral performance and responses to thought probes. Probe frequency and framing did not affect behavioral performance or probe responses. But, in light of the present results, we argue that thought probes need at least three responses, corresponding to on-task, off-task, and task-related interference. When researchers are specifically investigating mind-wandering, the probe responses should also distinguish between mind-wandering, external distraction, and mind-blanking.

Pupillary Correlates of Fluctuations in Sustained Attention.

The current study examined pupillary correlates of fluctuations and lapses of sustained attention. Participants performed a sustained attention task with either a varied ISI or a fixed ISI (fixed at 2 or 8 sec) while pupil responses were continuously recorded. The results indicated that performance was worse when the ISI was varied or fixed at 8 sec compared with when the ISI was fixed at 2 sec, suggesting that varied or long ISI conditions require greater intrinsic alertness compared with constant short ISIs. In terms of pupillary responses, the results demonstrated that slow responses (indicative of lapses) were associated with greater variability in tonic pupil diameter, smaller dilation responses during the ISI, and subsequently smaller dilation responses to stimulus onset. These results suggest that lapses of attention are associated with lower intrinsic alertness, resulting in a lowered intensity of attention to task-relevant stimuli. Following a lapse of attention, performance, tonic pupil diameter, and phasic pupillary responses, all increased, suggesting that attention was reoriented to the task. These results are consistent with the notion that pupillary responses track fluctuations in sustained attention.

Tracking arousal state and mind wandering with pupillometry.

In four experiments, the association between arousal state and different mind-wandering states was examined. Participants performed a sustained attention task while pupil responses were continuously recorded. Periodically during the task, participants were presented with thought probes to determine if they were on task or mind wandering. Across the four experiments, the results suggested that in situations that promoted on-task behaviors and focused external attention, mind wandering was associated with lowered arousal, as seen by smaller tonic pupil diameters and smaller phasic pupillary responses. However, in situations that promoted a more internal focus of attention, there were no differences between on-task states and mind wandering in tonic pupil diameter (although differences emerged for phasic pupillary responses), suggesting similar arousal levels. Furthermore, across the four experiments, mind blanking and mind wandering dissociated in terms of whether the situation promoted focused external attention or focused internal attention. These results are broadly consistent with the notion that mind wandering is a heterogeneous construct, with different forms of mind wandering being associated with different arousal states, and suggest that a combination of behavioral and pupillary measures can be used to track these various states.

Individual differences in working memory capacity and search efficiency.

In two experiments, we examined how various learning conditions impact the relation between working memory capacity (WMC) and memory search abilities. Experiment 1 employed a delayed free recall task with semantically related words to induce the buildup of proactive interference (PI) and revealed that the buildup of PI differentially impacted recall accuracy and recall latency for low-WMC and high-WMC individuals. Namely, the buildup of PI impaired recall accuracy and slowed recall latency for low-WMC individuals to a greater extent than what was observed for high-WMC individuals. To provide a circumstance in which previously learned information remains relevant over the course of learning, Experiment 2 required participants to complete a multitrial delayed free recall task with unrelated words. Results revealed that with increased practice with the same word list, WMC-related differences were eventually eliminated in interresponse times (IRTs) and recall accuracy, but not recall latency. Thus, despite still accumulating larger search sets, low-WMC individuals searched LTM as efficiently as high-WMC individuals. Collectively, these results are consistent with the notion that under normal free recall conditions, low-WMC individuals search LTM less efficiently than do high-WMC individuals because of their reliance on noisy temporal-contextual cues at retrieval. However, it appears that under conditions in which previously learned items remain relevant at recall, this tendency to rely on vague self-generated retrieval cues can actually facilitate the ability to accurately and quickly recall information.

Working memory capacity and mind-wandering during low-demand cognitive tasks.

Individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) typically predict reduced rates of mind-wandering during laboratory tasks (Randall, Oswald, & Beier, 2014). However, some studies have shown a positive relationship between WMC and mind-wandering during particularly low-demand tasks (Levinson, Smallwood, & Davidson, 2012; Rummel & Boywitt, 2014; Zavagnin, Borella, & De Beni, 2014). More specifically, Baird, Smallwood, and Schooler (2011) found that when individuals with greater WMC do mind-wander, they tend entertain more future-oriented thoughts. This piece of evidence is frequently used to support the context-regulation hypothesis, which states that using spare capacity to think productively (e.g. plan) during relatively simple tasks is indicative of a cognitive system that is functioning in an adaptive manner (Smallwood & Andrews-Hanna, 2013). The present investigation failed to replicate the finding that WMC is positively related to future-oriented off-task thought, which has implications for several theoretical viewpoints.

Pupillary correlates of lapses of sustained attention.

The current study examined the extent to which pupillary responses (both pretrial baseline and phasic responses) would accurately track lapses of attention as predicted by theories of locus coeruleus norepinephrine (LC-NE) functioning. Participants performed a sustained attention task while pupil responses were continuously recorded. Periodically during the task, participants were presented with thought probes to determine if they were on or off task. The results suggested the pupillary responses accurately distinguished on from off-task states. Importantly, pretrial baseline pupil responses distinguished different types of lapses of attention, with inattentive and mind-wandering states being associated with small pretrial baseline pupil diameters on average and distracted states being associated with larger pretrial baseline pupil diameters on average compared to focused states. These results support the notion that pupil diameter is sensitive to different types of lapses of attention which may be associated with different LC-NE modes.

The influence of lapses of attention on working memory capacity.

In three experiments, the influence of lapses of attention on working memory (WM) capacity measures was examined. Participants performed various change detection tasks while also reporting whether they were focused on the current task or whether they were unfocused and mind-wandering. Participants reported that they were mind-wandering roughly 27% of the time, and when participants reported mind-wandering, their performance was worse compared to when they reported being on-task. Low WM capacity individuals reported more mind-wandering and lapses of attention than high WM capacity individuals, and mind-wandering and filtering abilities were shown to make independent contributions to capacity estimates. These results provide direct support for the notion that the ability to focus attention on-task and prevent lapses of attention is an important contributor to performance on measures of WM capacity.

Working memory delay activity predicts individual differences in cognitive abilities.

A great deal of prior research has examined the relation between estimates of working memory and cognitive abilities. Yet, the neural mechanisms that account for these relations are still not very well understood. The current study explored whether individual differences in working memory delay activity would be a significant predictor of cognitive abilities. A large number of participants performed multiple measures of capacity, attention control, long-term memory, working memory span, and fluid intelligence, and latent variable analyses were used to examine the data. During two working memory change detection tasks, we acquired EEG data and examined the contralateral delay activity. The results demonstrated that the contralateral delay activity was significantly related to cognitive abilities, and importantly these relations were because of individual differences in both capacity and attention control. These results suggest that individual differences in working memory delay activity predict individual differences in a broad range of cognitive abilities, and this is because of both differences in the number of items that can be maintained and the ability to control access to working memory.

Is playing video games related to cognitive abilities?

The relations between video-game experience and cognitive abilities were examined in the current study. In two experiments, subjects performed a number of working memory, fluid intelligence, and attention-control measures and filled out a questionnaire about their video-game experience. In Experiment 1, an extreme-groups analysis indicated that experienced video-game players outperformed nonplayers on several cognitive-ability measures. However, in Experiments 1 and 2, when analyses examined the full range of subjects at both the task level and the latent-construct level, nearly all of the relations between video-game experience and cognitive abilities were near zero. These results cast doubt on recent claims that playing video games leads to enhanced cognitive abilities. Statistical and methodological issues with prior studies of video-game experience are discussed along with recommendations for future studies.

The influence of encoding manipulations on the dynamics of free recall.

In three experiments, the influence of various encoding manipulations on the dynamics of free recall were investigated. In Experiment 1, increasing study time increased the number of items recalled with no change in recall latency. In Experiment 2, a levels-of-processing manipulation increased the number of items recalled with no change in recall latency. Finally, in Experiment 3, massed presentations of items increased the number of items recalled with no change in recall latency; however, spaced presentations of items increased both the number of items recalled and recall latency. These results suggest that some encoding manipulations serve to increase the absolute strength of items, whereas other encoding manipulations create copies of target items. In both cases, the number of items recalled is increased, but differences arise in recall latency. These results point to the importance of examining both the number of items recalled and recall latency as means of better understanding encoding and retrieval processes that lead to successful remembering.

Working memory and fluid intelligence: capacity, attention control, and secondary memory retrieval.

Several theories have been put forth to explain the relation between working memory (WM) and gF. Unfortunately, no single factor has been shown to fully account for the relation between these two important constructs. In the current study we tested whether multiple factors (capacity, attention control, and secondary memory) would collectively account for the relation. A large number of participants performed multiple measures of each construct and latent variable analyses were used to examine the data. The results demonstrated that capacity, attention control, and secondary memory were uniquely related to WM storage, WM processing, and gF. Importantly, the three factors completely accounted for the relation between WM (both processing and storage) and gF. Thus, although storage and processing make independent contributions to gF, both of these contributions are accounted for by variation in capacity, attention control and secondary memory. These results are consistent with the multifaceted view of WM, suggesting that individual differences in capacity, attention control, and secondary memory jointly account for individual differences in WM and its relation with gF.

Fluctuations in pre-trial attentional state and their influence on goal neglect.

Fluctuations in attentional state and their relation to goal neglect were examined in the current study. Participants performed a variant of the Stroop task in which attentional state ratings were given prior to each trial. It was found that pre-trial attentional state ratings predicted subsequent trial performance, such that when participants rated their current attentional state as highly focused on the current task, performance tended to be high compared to when participants reported their current attentional state as being unfocused on the current task. This effect was larger for incongruent than congruent trials leading to differences in the magnitude of the Stroop effect as a function of pre-trial attentional state. Furthermore, variability in attentional state was correlated with overall levels of performance, and when attentional state was covaried out, the Stroop effect was greatly reduced. These results suggest a link between fluctuations in pre-trial attentional state and goal neglect.

Strategic search from long-term memory: an examination of semantic and autobiographical recall.

Searching long-term memory is theoretically driven by both directed (search strategies) and random components. In the current study we conducted four experiments evaluating strategic search in semantic and autobiographical memory. Participants were required to generate either exemplars from the category of animals or the names of their friends for several minutes. Self-reported strategies suggested that participants typically relied on visualization strategies for both tasks and were less likely to rely on ordered strategies (e.g., alphabetic search). When participants were instructed to use particular strategies, the visualization strategy resulted in the highest levels of performance and the most efficient search, whereas ordered strategies resulted in the lowest levels of performance and fairly inefficient search. These results are consistent with the notion that retrieval from long-term memory is driven, in part, by search strategies employed by the individual, and that one particularly efficient strategy is to visualize various situational contexts that one has experienced in the past in order to constrain the search and generate the desired information.

The importance of conative factors for individual differences in attention control.

Relations between conative factors (task-specific motivation, attention self-efficacy, and self-set goals) and individual differences in attention control (AC) performance were investigated in two latent variable studies. Participants performed AC tasks along with measures of working memory and processing speed. During the AC tasks, participants self-reported their motivation, self-efficacy, and self-set goals for the tasks. Task-unrelated thoughts were also assessed. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that latent factors for the constructs could be formed and the conative factors were each related to the AC factor. Structural equation modeling further suggested that the conative factors tended to account for unique variance in attention, even after accounting for shared variance with working memory and processing speed. These results provide evidence that conative factors are important for individual differences in AC and further suggest that multiple factors likely contribute to variation in performance on AC tasks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Individual differences in attention control: A meta-analysis and re-analysis of latent variable studies.

A meta-analysis and re-analysis of prior latent variable studies was conducted in order to assess whether there is evidence for individual differences in broad attention control abilities. Data from 90 independent samples and over 23,000 participants suggested that most (84.4%) prior studies find evidence for a coherent attention control factor with average factor loadings of .51. This latent attention control factor was related to other cognitive ability factors including working memory, shifting, fluid intelligence, long-term memory, reading comprehension, and processing speed, as well as to self-reports of task-unrelated thoughts and task specific motivation. Further re-analyses and meta-analyses suggest that the results remained largely unchanged when considering various possible measurement issues. Examining the factor structure of attention control suggested evidence for sub-components of attention control (restraining, constraining and sustaining attention) which could be accounted for a by a higher-order factor. Additional re-analyses suggested that attention control represents a broad ability within models of cognitive abilities. Overall, these results provide evidence for attention control abilities as an important individual differences construct.