Attentional Boost Effect Research Articles

Attentional boost effect: research based on source memory and emotional materials.

The attentional boost effect (ABE) refers to the phenomenon that stimuli which appear with targets in a detection task are better remembered than those that appear with distractors. Previous studies have consistently reported a robust ABE in item memory, but inconsistent conclusions have been drawn for source memory. Additionally, regarding the impact of emotional stimuli on the ABE, conclusions have also been inconsistent. The aim of this research was to clarify these inconsistencies. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to memorize different emotional background words (primary task), monitor the symbols above the words, press the spacebar when encountering the "+" (secondary task), and remember the size of the emotional background stimuli (as a source feature). Results revealed that the ABE of negative stimuli was stronger in item memory. For source memory, an ABE was observed only for large fonts. In Experiment 2, participants performed the same task as in Experiment 1, except for recalling the color of emotional stimuli instead of their size. Results indicated a stronger ABE for emotional stimuli in item memory, with no ABE observed in source memory. These findings suggest: (1) Item and source memory are regulated by distinct cognitive processes, leading to differential effects of emotionality on ABE in both types of memory. (2) Contrary to previous literature, emotional stimuli, such as negative words, do not consistently diminish the ABE.

The Attentional Boost Effect in Older Adults: Examining the Vulnerable Boost Hypothesis

ABSTRACT Introduction The Attentional Boost Effect (ABE) occurs whenever participants recognize stimuli paired earlier with to-be-responded targets better than stimuli earlier paired with to-be-ignored distractors or presented on their own (baseline). Previous studies showed that the ABE does not occur in older adults when the encoding time is too short (500 ms/word) or when encoding is incidental, likely due to aging-related reductions in cognitive resources or limitations of processing speed. Method In the present study, younger and older adults encoded words presented for 1000 ms under intentional instructions. In addition, to determine the potential impact of the retention interval, the recognition task was performed after a delay of 2 minutes (Experiment 1) or 20 minutes (Experiment 2). Results Under these conditions, older adults showed a significant ABE and the size of the effect was comparable to that achieved by younger adults. The magnitude of the ABE was vulnerable to the passage of time because the recognition advantage of target-paired words decreased sharply from 2 to 20 minutes. Conclusions Taken together, our data demonstrate that younger and older adults may have comparable ABE effects under specific conditions and are similarly sensitive to interference.

The effect of target detection task on memory encoding varies in different stimulus onset asynchronies.

The attentional boost effect (ABE) and action-induced memory enhancement (AIME) suggest that memory performance for target-paired items is superior to that for distractor-paired items when participants performed a target detection task and a memory encoding task simultaneously. Though the memory enhancement has been well established, the temporal dynamics of how the target detection task influenced memory encoding remains unclear. To investigate this, we manipulated the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between detection stimuli and the words to be memorized using a remember/know study-test paradigm, and we focused primarily on memory performance for the words that appeared after the detection response. The results showed that target-paired memory enhancement was robust from SOA = 0 s to SOA = 0.75 s, but was not significant when examined by itself in Experiment 1A or weakened in Experiment 2 and the conjoint analysis when SOA = 1 s, which were only observed in R responses. The post-response memory enhancement still existed when there was no temporal overlap between the word and target, similar to the magnitude of memory enhancement observed with temporal overlap. These results supported the view that target-paired memory enhancement (recollection rather than familiarity) occurred irrespective of whether the items appeared simultaneously with the targets or within a short period after the response, and the temporal overlap of the word and target was not necessary for post-response memory enhancement.

The effect of target detection on memory retrieval.

Attention and memory are fundamental cognitive processes that closely interact. In the attentional boost effect (ABE), the stimuli that co-occur with targets are remembered better than those that co-occur with distractors in target detection tasks performed during memory encoding. In target detection tasks performed during retrieval, the stimuli that co-occur with targets are recognized as 'old' more easily than the stimuli that co-occur with distractors. This study mainly explored the internal mechanism of the effect of target detection on recognition. In Experiment 1, the full attention (FA; where participants performed only the memory task) condition was used to compare with divided attention (DA; where participants performed target detection while performing memory retrieval) condition to explore the impact of target detection and distraction inhibition on recognition. In Experiment 2, the proportion of old and new words in the retrieval stage was adjusted to 1:1 to eliminate the possible reaction tendency caused by the high proportion of old words. In Experiment 3, the presentation time of words was extended to 1.5 s and 3 s to eliminate the possible impact of rapid processing. The results indicated that the effect of target detection on recognition was attributed to both target detection and distraction rejection and is not affected by the ratio of old and new words and the word presentation time. The effect of target detection on recognition may be owing to temporal yoking of the dual tasks, which is different from the effect of target detection on memory encoding.

The attentional boost effect in free recall dynamics.

With the attentional boost effect (ABE), responding to a briefly presented target in a detection task enhances the encoding of other items presented at the same time. However, the effects of target detection on context memory for the event in which the stimulus appeared remain unclear. Here, we present findings from verbal free recall and recognition experiments that test the effects of target detection during encoding on temporal and relational aspects of context memory. Consistent with prior demonstrations of limited effects of target detection on context memory, in Experiment 1 there was no evidence that target detection influenced the likelihood of transitioning to items that were presented at similar times during encoding, or that were in the same encoding condition. These null effects were replicated in a second experiment, which added an old/new recognition and relational memory test. These results indicate that target detection during encoding has minimal effects on the formation of temporal associations between words in memory.

Exploring the roles of distinctiveness and performance anticipation in the Attentional Boost Effect

ABSTRACT We tested the validity of two alternative accounts of the Attentional Boost Effect (ABE) – the finding that words associated with to-be-responded targets are recognized better than words associated with to-be-ignored distractors. The distinctiveness hypothesis assumes that, during recognition, participants probe their memories for distinctive information confirming that a word was studied (e.g., “I remember having pressed the spacebar, so I must have studied the word”). This strategy cannot be used in a between-subjects condition in which participants cannot appreciate the differences between target – and distractor-paired words. In agreement, Experiments 1A and 1B found that the ABE was significant in a within-subjects design, whereas it was eliminated in a between-subjects design. On the other hand, the performance anticipation hypothesis assumes that, during the study phase, participants anticipate the need of responding to a subset of target-paired words: this would create a persistent performance anticipation that would prevent them from effectively encoding distractor-paired words. In contrast with this account, we found that, when blocks of five distractor trials were regularly alternated with blocks of five target trials in Experiment 2, recognition accuracy decreased linearly in both conditions. Overall, these results suggest that distinctiveness, but not performance anticipation, might underlie the ABE.

The generality of the attentional boost effect for famous, unfamiliar, and inverted faces.

Familiarity and face inversion not only affect face recognition and memory but also influence attention. Face processing is less attention-demanding for familiar than for unfamiliar faces and for upright than for inverted faces. The automaticity raises the question of how face processing interacts with an increase in attention. Using a dual-task paradigm, we tested the interaction between attention and face familiarity and orientation. Participants encoded a series of faces to memory while simultaneously monitoring a stream of colored squares, pressing the space bar for target-colored squares and making no response to distractor-colored squares. Replicating previous findings of the attentional boost effect (ABE), we found that faces encoded with target squares were better remembered than faces encoded with distractor squares. If the automatic nature of familiar (or upright) face processing makes attention unnecessary, then the attentional boost should be attenuated for familiar relative to unfamiliar faces and for upright relative to inverted faces. Data from three experiments showed, however, that the ABE was the same for all types of faces. These results suggest that target detection did not simply elevate attention in an early encoding phase. Rather, selecting targets and rejecting distractors in the color task may have led to yoked temporal selection of target-concurrent faces for entry into memory.

Memory and attention: A double dissociation between memory encoding and memory retrieval

Research has found substantial negative effects of divided attention (DA) during encoding but less substantial effects when attention is divided during retrieval, an asymmetry which has been interpreted as indicating that different control processes or forms of attention are involved in encoding and retrieval (e.g., Chun & Johnson, 2011; Craik, Govoni, Naveh-Benjamin, & Anderson, 1996; Long, Kuhl, & Chun, 2018). The extant evidence, however, is not strong support for qualitative differences and might simply indicate differential sensitivity. The present experiments document a stronger, double dissociation by focusing on the Attentional Boost Effect (ABE) – a phenomenon in which the detection of targets in a secondary task enhances encoding of co-occurring stimuli. The dual-task interaction account proposes that the classical negative effects produced by dual-task interference are offset by a transient increase in externally-directed attention brought about by target detection. Since externally-directed attention is less valuable for retrieval processes, the ABE should result in a net negative effect when applied in the test phase because the dual-task interference would no longer be offset by the externally-directed boost occurring during target trials. Experiments 1, 2 and 4 confirmed the predictions by showing that test words paired with target stimuli were recognized significantly worse than test words paired with distractor stimuli. In contrast, Experiments 3 and 4 replicated the usual positive effects of the ABE with respect to encoding. We discuss these findings in light of recent theoretical proposals suggesting that encoding and retrieval processes are subserved by different forms of attention (external [perceptual] vs. internal [reflective]). Implications for the Transfer-Appropriate-Processing view of memory are also illustrated.

The role of alerting in the attentional boost effect.

Stimuli presented simultaneously with behaviorally relevant events (e.g., targets) are better memorized, an unusual effect defined as the attentional boost effect (ABE). We hypothesized that all types of behaviorally relevant events, including attentional cues, can promote the encoding process for the stimuli paired with them, and the attentional alerting network can amplify the ABE. The two experiments we conducted demonstrated that not all behaviorally relevant events, including alerting cues, benefit the processing of concurrently paired stimuli. We also found that the presence of a cue prior to a target can extend the memory advantage produced by target detection, but this advantage can only be observed within a limited range of time. Overall, our study provides the first evidence that the alerting network plays an important role in the ABE.

Can divided attention at retrieval improve memory? Effects of target detection during recognition

ABSTRACT The attentional boost effect (ABE) is an improvement of memory under divided attention conditions in which stimulus encoding is enhanced when a target is detected in a simultaneous target-monitoring distracting task. Here we asked whether memory is similarly improved when the target-monitoring task occurs at the time of retrieval. In four experiments, participants encoded words under full attention then completed a recognition test under either divided attention, during which participants made recognition judgments while performing the target-monitoring task, or full attention, in which the target-monitoring task was not performed. Relative to distractor rejection, target detection increased hits and false alarms under divided attention with no net effect on discrimination. Targets and distractors had no effect on recognition under full attention. The target-related increase in hits and false alarms occurred regardless of whether the target-monitoring material matched or mismatched the test material and regardless of the target-to-distractor ratio and the target response. A change in bias accounts for the phenomenon, in which participants adopt a more lenient criterion for target-paired words than for distractor-paired words. The same divided attention manipulation that enhances memory at encoding does not similarly enhance memory at retrieval. Theoretical explanations are discussed.

The attentional boost effect and source memory.

Stimuli presented with targets during a monitoring task are better remembered than stimuli presented with distractors, a result referred to as the attentional boost effect (ABE). The ABE is consistently found for item memory, but conflicting results have been reported for different assessments of associative memory, with studies of source memory (whether the study item had been presented with a target or distractor) demonstrating an ABE and studies of context memory (memory for the perceptual details or list membership of the study item) not showing the effect. This could be due to methodological differences across studies (study materials: pictures vs. words; number of study presentations: multiple vs. single), issues related to the measurement of source memory (traditional measures vs. multinomial modeling), or differences in the informational bases of source and context memory tests. Three experiments consistently found an ABE in source memory and ruled out differences based on study materials, number of study presentations, and technique for measuring source memory. The discrepancies in the prior research appear to hinge on the differences in informational bases of source and context memory tests. In particular, source memory relies on associations between the study item and information about the monitoring task and is open to inferential processes (participants exhibit a significant bias to categorize false alarms as coming from the distractor condition). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Both target detection and response contribute to the attentional boost effect.

Detecting and responding to targets in an rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream facilitates the processing of concurrently presented images. Theoretical accounts of this attentional boost effect (ABE) have emphasized the role of target detection, yet it is unclear whether the ABE originates from target detection or response. To examine this, we asked participants to search for the letter T among a rapid stream of other letters while encoding objects to memory. The nontarget letters, drawn randomly from the remaining letters of the Roman alphabet, comprised half of the trials. Across three experiments, participants responded only to the target letter T, to all letters but the target letter T, or to both T and not-T with two different keys. The large number of different nontargets ensured that participants preferred to search for the target letter T regardless of the response requirement. We found an ABE when participants responded to the target letter T, but not when they responded to the other nontarget letters, suggesting that response requirement modulated the ABE. Furthermore, making different responses to targets and nontargets led to a memory advantage for target-paired objects. Thus, target detection and response both contributed to the ABE. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The attentional boost effect facilitates visual category learning.

Increasing evidence has shown that summary visual statistics, such as the mean size or centroid of locations, can be perceived without focal attention. Here, we tested the role of attention in visual category learning - rapid learning of visual similarities among paintings of the same artist. Participants encoded paintings from two famous artists into memory while simultaneously monitoring a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream of colored squares, pressing the spacebar for target colors and making no response to distractor colors. Paintings encoded with the RSVP targets were better remembered than those encoded with the RSVP distractors, demonstrating an Attentional Boost Effect. Importantly, pairing one artist's paintings with the RSVP targets led to better visual category learning - participants were more accurate at recognizing novel paintings from this artist, relative to another artist whose paintings were presented with the RSVP distractors. Thus, visual category learning is subjected to the same constraint of attention as exemplar memory, demonstrating common mechanisms for exemplar and category learning.

The attentional boost effect enhances the item-specific, but not the relational, encoding of verbal material: Evidence from multiple recall tests with related and unrelated lists.

In the Attentional Boost Effect (ABE), words or images encoded with to-be-detected target squares are later recognized better than words or images encoded with to-be-ignored distractor squares. The present study sought to determine whether the ABE enhanced the encoding of the item-specific and relational properties of the studied words by using the multiple recall paradigm. Previous evidence indicates that manipulations fostering item-specific encoding increased the number of item gains, whereas manipulations fostering relational encoding decreased item losses. Across three experiments, participants were presented with lists of semantically related or unrelated words paired with target (red) or distractor (green) squares, under the instructions to remember all the words and press the spacebar when the square was red. Immediately after the study phase, they were involved in four consecutive recall attempts. In all cases, the classical ABE was replicated, in that participants recalled more target- than distractor-paired words. Most importantly, the analyses converged in showing that item gains were significantly greater for target- than for distractor-paired words when participants studied lists of related words (but not when they studied unrelated lists); in contrast, item losses did not differ between the two types of words, irrespective of the nature of the studied list. Taken together, these data suggest that the ABE enhanced the encoding of item-specific information but had no effect on the encoding of relational information. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Grounding the Attentional Boost Effect in Events and the Efficient Brain.

Attention and memory for everyday experiences vary over time, wherein some moments are better attended and subsequently better remembered than others. These effects have been demonstrated in naturalistic viewing tasks with complex and relatively uncontrolled stimuli, as well as in more controlled laboratory tasks with simpler stimuli. For example, in the attentional boost effect (ABE), participants perform two tasks at once: memorizing a series of briefly presented stimuli (e.g., pictures of outdoor scenes) for a later memory test, and responding to other concurrently presented cues that meet pre-defined criteria (e.g., participants press a button for a blue target square and do nothing for a red distractor square). However, rather than increasing dual-task interference, attending to a target cue boosts, rather than impairs, subsequent memory for concurrently presented information. In this review we describe current data on the extent and limitations of the attentional boost effect and whether it may be related to activity in the locus coeruleus neuromodulatory system. We suggest that insight into the mechanisms that produce the attentional boost effect may be found in recent advances in the locus coeruleus literature and from understanding of how the neurocognitive system handles stability and change in everyday events. We consequently propose updates to an early account of the attentional boost effect, the dual-task interaction model, to better ground it in what is currently known about event cognition and the role that the LC plays in regulating brain states.

The attentional boost effect facilitates the encoding of contextual details: New evidence with verbal materials and a modified recognition task.

In the attentional boost effect (ABE), words or images encoded with to-be-responded targets are later recalled better than words or images encoded with to-be-ignored distractors. The ABE has been repeatedly demonstrated to improve item memory, whereas evidence concerning contextual memory is mixed, with studies showing both significant and null results. The present three experiments investigated whether the ABE could enhance contextual memory when using a recognition task that allowed participants to reinstate the original study context, by simultaneously manipulating the nature of the instructions provided at encoding. Participants studied a sequence of colored words paired with target (gray circles) or distractor (gray squares) stimuli, under the instructions to remember either the words and their colors (Exps. 1–2) or only the words (Exp. 3) and simultaneously press the space bar whenever a gray circle appeared on the screen. Then, after a brief interval, they were administered a modified recognition task involving two successive stages. First, participants were presented with two different words and had to decide which word was originally encoded; second, they were presented with five colored versions of the (correct) old words and had to remember the color in which they were studied. Results converged in showing that the ABE enhanced contextual memory, although the effect was more robust with intentional encoding instructions.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.3758/s13414-022-02509-z.

The Attentional Boost Effect in Young and Adult Euthymic Bipolar Patients and Healthy Controls.

In the Attentional Boost Effect (ABE), stimuli encoded with to-be-responded targets are later recognized more accurately than stimuli encoded with to-be-ignored distractors. While this effect is robust in young adults, evidence regarding healthy older adults and clinical populations is sparse. The present study investigated whether a significant ABE is present in bipolar patients (BP), who, even in the euthymic phase, suffer from attentional deficits, and whether the effect is modulated by age. Young and adult euthymic BP and healthy controls (HC) presented with a sequence of pictures paired with target or distractor squares were asked to pay attention to the pictures and press the spacebar when a target square appeared. After a 15-min interval, their memory of the pictures was tested in a recognition task. The performance in the detection task was lower in BP than in HC, in both age groups. More importantly, neither young nor adult BP exhibited a significant ABE; for HC, a robust ABE was only found in young participants. The results suggest that the increase in the attentional demands of the detection task in BP and in adult HC draws resources away from the encoding of target-associated stimuli, resulting in elimination of the ABE. Clinical implications are discussed.

Does the Attentional Boost Effect Depend on the Intentionality of Encoding? Investigating the Mechanisms Underlying Memory for Visual Objects Presented at Behaviorally Relevant Moments in Time.

Pictures in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream are better remembered when they are simultaneously presented with targets of an unrelated detection task than when they are presented with distractors. However, it is unclear whether this so-called “attentional boost effect” depends on the intentionality of encoding. While there are studies suggesting that the attentional boost effect even occurs when encoding is incidental, there are several methodological issues with these studies, which may have undermined the incidental encoding instructions. The present study (N = 141) investigated the role of the intentionality of encoding with an improved experimental design. Specifically, to prevent a spill-over of intentional resources to the pictures in the RSVP stream, the speed of the stream was increased (to four pictures per second) and each picture was presented only once during the course of the experiment. An attentional boost effect was only found when encoding was intentional but not when encoding was incidental. Interestingly, memory performance for incidentally encoded pictures was nevertheless substantially above chance, independently of whether images were presented with search-relevant targets or distractors. These results suggest that the attentional boost effect is a memory advantage that occurs only under intentional encoding conditions, and that perceptual long-term memory representations are formed as a natural product of perception, independently of the presence of behaviorally relevant events.

The attentional boost effect with semantic information detection tasks

The attentional boost effect (ABE) is a phenomenon in which in some dual tasks, increased attention to target detection causes an increase in memory performance related to items paired with the target. However, in previous studies concerning the ABE, the detection task objects usually reflected perceptual information. Whether the ABE could be observed if the task involves detecting semantic information is unclear. To answer this question, the present study adopted the classic dual-task paradigm of the ABE. Arabic numerals were used as semantic information stimuli in the detection tasks, and the degree of semantic processing in the detection task gradually increased over three experiments. The results showed that target detection with semantic information (i.e., digits) triggered the ABE (Experiment 1) and that the ABE was also generated under the semantic judgement-based detection task (i.e., odd-even detection task) regardless of whether the detection task used a single-target stimulus (Experiment 2) or a multi-target stimulus (Experiment 3). These findings indicate that an increased semantic load before the target decision in the detection task does not affect the ABE, and both perceptual detection and semantic detection can trigger the ABE.

The attentional boost effect enhances the recognition of bound features in short-term memory

ABSTRACT In the Attentional Boost Effect (ABE), images or words encoded with unrelated to-be-responded targets are later remembered better than images or words encoded with to-be-ignored distractors. In the realm of short-term memory, the ABE has been previously shown to enhance the short-term recognition of single-feature stimuli. The present study replicated this finding and extended it to a condition requiring the encoding and retention of colour-shape associations. Across four experiments, participants studied arrays of four coloured squares (the colour-only condition), four gray shapes (the shape-only condition) or four coloured shapes (the binding condition), paired with either a target letter (to which participants had to respond by pressing the spacebar) or a distractor letter (for which no response was required). After a short delay, they were presented with a probe array and asked to decide whether it matched or not the encoded array. Results showed that, in all conditions, the recognition of target-paired arrays was significantly better than the recognition of distractor-paired arrays. These findings suggest that the ABE can enhance feature binding.