Abstract
Flexible behavior requires guidance not only by sensations that are available immediately but also by relevant mental contents carried forward through working memory. Therefore, selective-attention functions that modulate the contents of working memory to guide behavior (inside-out) are just as important as those operating on sensory signals to generate internal contents (outside-in). We review the burgeoning literature on selective attention in the inside-out direction and underscore its functional, flexible, and future-focused nature. We discuss in turn the purpose (why), targets (what), sources (when), and mechanisms (how) of selective attention inside working memory, using visual working memory as a model. We show how the study of internal selective attention brings new insights concerning the core cognitive processes of attention and working memory and how considering selective attention and working memory together paves the way for a rich and integrated understanding of how mind serves behavior.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 137-165 |
| Number of pages | 29 |
| Journal | Annual Review of Psychology |
| Volume | 74 |
| Early online date | 18 Jan 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by an ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council (MEMTICIPATION, 850636) to F.v.E., a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award (104571/Z/14/Z) and a James S. McDonnell Foundation Understanding Human Cognition Collaborative Award (220020448) to A.C.N, and by the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre. TheWellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging is supported by core funding from theWellcome Trust (203139/Z/16/Z).We also wish to thank the members of the Proactive Brain Lab in Amsterdam and the Brain & Cognition Lab in Oxford for all the collaborative research and enriching exchanges that have shaped this review. Special thanks go to Daniela Gresch, Sage Boettcher, Rose Nasrawi, and Baiwei Liu for their careful reading of and input into earlier drafts of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2023 by the author(s).
Funding
This work was supported by an ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council (MEMTICIPATION, 850636) to F.v.E., a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award (104571/Z/14/Z) and a James S. McDonnell Foundation Understanding Human Cognition Collaborative Award (220020448) to A.C.N, and by the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre. TheWellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging is supported by core funding from theWellcome Trust (203139/Z/16/Z).We also wish to thank the members of the Proactive Brain Lab in Amsterdam and the Brain & Cognition Lab in Oxford for all the collaborative research and enriching exchanges that have shaped this review. Special thanks go to Daniela Gresch, Sage Boettcher, Rose Nasrawi, and Baiwei Liu for their careful reading of and input into earlier drafts of the manuscript.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| MEMTICIPATION | 850636 |
| James S. McDonnell Foundation | 220020448 |
| James S. McDonnell Foundation | |
| Wellcome Trust | 104571/Z/14/Z |
| Wellcome Trust | |
| European Research Council | |
| NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre | |
| theWellcome Trust | 203139/Z/16/Z |
Keywords
- action
- anticipation
- expectation
- selective attention
- vision
- working memory