Journal Article

The effects of the detection stimulus duration on the persistence of the attentional boost effect

Lin, Huiru, Huang, Fajie, Zheng, Siqi, Meng, Yingfang, Zhao, Xin

2024

Overview

According to the attentional boost effect (ABE), detecting a target in a dual-task paradigm can facilitate memory encoding of concurrently presented stimuli, but the detection stimuli always appears transiently (only for 100 ms). In order to gain deeper insights into the mechanisms behind ABE, it is crucial to investigate whether the brief presentation of the detection stimulus is a necessary prerequisite for generating ABE. To address this issue, the present study manipulated the presentation time of the detection stimulus (500-ms vs. 100 ms) and controlled the study-testing time interval (immediate test vs. 24 h test). It turned out that, the short-duration (100 ms) detection condition produced an ABE similar to that of the long-duration (500 ms) condition at the immediate test, but only the ABE produced by the short-duration condition could be continued until the 24 h test (Experiments 1), and the ABE produced by the long-duration condition disappeared in the 24 h test. Nonetheless, when a retrieval practice session was introduced before the 24 h test, the ABE generated by the long-duration condition also extended to the 24 h  test (Experiment 2). Regarding ERP components, the short-duration detection condition elicited a more negative mean amplitude in the 500–700 ms time window compared to the long detection-duration condition (Experiment 3). This implies that the duration of the detection stimulus likely plays a central role in influencing ABE through its effect on engram stability, with the short-duration condition potentially leading to a more stable engram compared to the long-duration condition.

• Publisher: Springer US,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Analysis / Attention / Behavioral Science and Psychology / Memory / Persistence / Psychology / Social Sciences / Stimuli (Psychology)