Competition and Control during Working Memory

Illuminates the storage format of working memory content, as well as the attentional processes controlling working memory.

Anastasia Kiyonaga (Author), Mark D'Esposito (Author)

9781108706445, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 12 November 2020

75 pages
15 x 23 x 1 cm, 0.24 kg

Working memory and perceptual attention are related functions, engaging many similar mechanisms and brain regions. As a consequence, behavioral and neural measures often reveal competition between working memory and attention demands. Yet there remains widespread debate about how working memory operates, and whether it truly shares processes and representations with attention. This Element will examine local-level representational properties to illuminate the storage format of working memory content, as well as systems-level and brain network communication properties to illuminate the attentional processes that control working memory. The Element will integrate both cognitive and neuroscientific accounts, describing shared substrates for working memory and perceptual attention, in a multi-level network architecture that provides robustness to disruptions and allows flexible attentional control in line with goals.

1. Introduction
2. Competition reveals mechanisms of WM storage and processing
3. Network interactions support attentional control of WM
4. Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Memory [JMRM], Physiological & neuro-psychology, biopsychology [JMM]