Abstract
Spatial attention allows us to selectively process information within a certain location in space. Despite the vast literature on spatial attention, the effect of cognitive load on spatial processing is still not fully understood. In this study we added cognitive load to a spatial processing task, so as to see whether it would differentially impact upon the processing of visual information in the left versus the right hemispace. The main paradigm consisted of a detection task that was performed during the maintenance interval of a verbal working memory task. We found that increasing cognitive working memory load had a more negative impact on detecting targets presented on the left side compared to those on the right side. The strength of the load effect correlated with the strength of the interaction on an individual level. The implications of an asymmetric attentional bias with a relative disadvantage for the left (vs the right) hemispace under high verbal working memory (WM) load are discussed.
Highlights
We are constantly confronted with an amount of information that dramatically exceeds our ability to process it
To investigate the performance on the working memory (WM) task, we entered the accuracies into a generalized linear mixed effects (GLME) model with a random intercept across participants and WM load as a fixed effects predictor
To investigate the influence of the WM load manipulation on the detection task, the RTs on the detection task were entered in a GLME model, with a random intercept per participant, a random slope for Load and for Position and, as fixed effect predictors, Block and the interaction between Load and Position
Summary
We are constantly confronted with an amount of information that dramatically exceeds our ability to process it. A particular feature is made relevant and often the aim is to focus only on the relevant information and ignore the irrelevant. This is typically investigated in interference paradigms by testing the effect induced by a distractor or a taskirrelevant stimulus. In a Stroop task for instance, where the aim is to name the color of a word, the meaning of the word itself, even though irrelevant, interferes when performing the task (Stroop, 1935) Another type of selective attention is spatial attention, in which the available attentional resources are distributed across space as a function of task demands. The cue correctly predicts target position while in an invalid trial, the cue predicts a position different from where the target will appear
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