Self-prioritization in working memory gating

Attention Perception & Psychophysics, vol. 87, pp. 399–414

Abstract

Working memory (WM) involves a dynamic interplay between temporary maintenance and updating of goal-relevant information. The balance between maintenance and updating is regulated by an input-gating mechanism that determines which information should enter WM (gate opening) and which should be kept out (gate closing). We investigated whether updating and gate opening/closing are differentially sensitive to the kind of information to be encoded and maintained in WM. Specifically, since the social salience of a stimulus is known to affect cognitive performance, we investigated if self-relevant information differentially impacts maintenance, updating, or gate opening/closing. Participants first learned to associate two neutral shapes with two social labels (i.e., "you" vs. "stranger"), respectively. Subsequently they performed the reference-back paradigm, a well-established WM task that disentangles WM updating, gate opening, and gate closing. Crucially, the shapes previously associated with the self or a stranger served as target stimuli in the reference-back task. We replicated the typical finding of a repetition benefit when consecutive trials require opening the gate to WM. In Study 1 (N = 45) this advantage disappeared when self-associated stimuli were recently gated into WM and immediately needed to be replaced by stranger-associated stimuli. However, this was not replicated in a larger sample (Study 2; N = 90), where a repetition benefit always occurred on consecutive gate-opening trials. Overall, our results do not provide evidence that the self-relevance of stimuli modulates component processes of WM. We discuss possible reasons for this null finding, including the importance of continuous reinstatement and task-relevance of the shape-label associations.

Authors 3

1. Roel van Dooren Aachen Cognitive Psychology Unit Institute of Psychology and Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology and Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

2. Bryant J. Jongkees Aachen Cognitive Psychology Unit Institute of Psychology and Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology and Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

3. Roberta Sellaro corresponding

   University of Padua

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization and Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Padova, Italy. roberta.sellaro@unipd.it

   Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization and Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Padova, Italy