Memory retrieval affects subsequent memory in ways both positive (e.g., the testing effect) and negative (e.g., retrieval-induced forgetting, RIF). The changes to memory that retrieval produces can be thought of as the encoding consequences of retrieval, examined here with respect to attention. In three experiments, participants first studied…

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…

Previous studies on value-driven attentional capture (VDAC) have demonstrated that the uncertainty of reward value modulates attentional allocation via associative learning. However, it is unclear whether such attentional exploration is executed based on the amount of potential reward information available for refining value prediction or the…

Fidget spinners have experienced a rapid rise in popularity, at least partially because they are marketed as attentional aides with the potential to enhance student learning. In the current study, college-aged students watched educational videos while either using a fidget spinner or not. Using a fidget spinner was associated with increased…

Previous research in children has shown that higher cardiovascular fitness is related to better executive functioning. However, the available literature is hampered by methodological limitations. The present study investigates the relationship between cardiovascular fitness and executive functioning in a large sample of healthy children (N = 814).…

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of the EASY Minds program on working memory and selective attention of a group of Iranian students with maths learning disabilities. The study had a quasi-experimental research design with pre-test, post-test, and follow-up tests. Forty students with maths learning disabilities were randomly…

Cognitive control describes the ability to use internal goals to strategically guide how we process and respond to our environment. Changes in the environment lead to adaptation in control strategies. This type of control learning can be observed in performance adjustments in response to varying proportions of easy to hard trials over blocks of…

An unresolved issue regarding working memory (WM) processes relates to whether domain-general attentional resources are required to form and store bound representations. Recent evidence suggests that visual WM performance during tasks that require binding of face-scene pairs is disrupted by concurrent divided attention to a greater degree than…

Memory retrieval often enhances later memory compared with restudying (i.e., the testing effect), indicating that retrieval does not simply reveal but also modifies memory representations. Dividing attention (DA) during encoding greatly disrupts later memory performance while DA during retrieval typically has modest effects--but what of the…

The occurrence of an unexpected, infrequent sound in an otherwise homogeneous auditory background tends to disrupt the ongoing cognitive task. This "deviation effect" is typically explained in terms of attentional capture whereby the deviant sound draws attention away from the focal activity, regardless of the nature of this activity.…

Evidence shows that visual working memory (VWM) is strongly served by attentional mechanisms, whereas other evidence shows that VWM representations readily survive when attention is being taken away. To reconcile these findings, we tested the hypothesis that directing attention away makes a memory representation vulnerable to interference from the…

Memory retrieval often enhances still later memory as evidenced by the testing effect. Divided attention (DA) is known to produce different effects on encoding and retrieval, substantially disrupting the former and often producing little effect on the latter. The present experiments examine whether the mnemonic consequences of retrieval are…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the impact of cognitive load imposed by a speech production task on the speech motor performance of healthy older and younger adults. Response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory were the primary cognitive processes of interest. Method: Twelve healthy older and 12 healthy younger…

Purpose: We examined the association between speech perception in noise (SPIN), language abilities, and working memory (WM) capacity in school-age children. Existing studies supporting the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model suggest that WM capacity plays a significant role in adverse listening situations. Method: Eighty-three children…

Background: The most common problems in individuals with autistic spectrum disorders are eye contact, being able to follow objects for a long time and lack of attention. Sports activities are known to prevent the negative symptoms of Autistic Spectrum Disorder. The Badminton sports branch has a positive effect on the individual's object control,…