Working memory and executive function: The influence of content and load on the control of attention
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In a series of three experiments, increasing working memory (WM) load was demonstrated to reduce the executive control of attention, measured via task-switching and inhibitory control paradigms. Uniquely, our paradigms allowed comparison of the ability to exert executive control when the stimulus was either part of the currently rehearsed memory set or an unrelated distractor item. The results demonstrated a content-specific effect-insofar as switching attention away from, or exerting inhibitory control over, items currently held in WM was especially difficult-compounded by increasing WM load. This finding supports the attentional control theory that active maintenance of competing task goals is critical to executive function and WM capacity; however, it also suggests that the increased salience provided to the contents of WM through active rehearsal exerts a content-specific influence on attentional control. These findings are discussed in relation to cue-induced ruminations, where active rehearsal of evocative information (e.g., negative thoughts in depression or drug-related thoughts in addiction) in WM typically results from environmental cuing. The present study has demonstrated that when information currently maintained in WM is reencountered, it is harder to exert executive control over it. The difficulty with suppressing the processing of these stimuli presumably reinforces the maintenance of these items in WM, due to the greater level of attention they are afforded, and may help to explain how the cue-induced craving/rumination cycle is perpetuated.
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To model executive function deficit, it is sufficient to create an overload of parallel cognitive processes, for example, by making a person recite the multiplication table aloud during decision-making.
“для моделирования дефицита исполнительных функций достаточно создать человеку перегрузку параллельными когнитивными процессами, например, во время принятия решений заставить его вслух проговаривать таблицу умножения (Hester, Garavan, 2005).”
From Когнитивные механизмы дисфункционального принятия решений при психических расстройствах (2025) · cites this paper as Hester, Garavan, 2005
The Discussion reports that increasing working-memory load slowed switching to a secondary decision-making task, and ‘WM and the Control of Attention’ reports poorer executive performance particularly at supraspan loads. The paper does not test reciting the multiplication table aloud during decision-making or establish that any parallel cognitive overload is sufficient to model an executive-function deficit. Page numbers were not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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- Authors
- Hester, R., & Garavan, H.
- Affiliations
- Trinity College Dublin (IE)
- Corresponding author
- Garavan, Hugh
- Venue
- Memory & Cognition
- Published
- 2005-03
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 221-233
- ISSN
- 0090-502X (ISSN-L)
- 1532-5946
- OpenAlex
- W1987890167
- Cited by
- 161
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 4.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Memory & Cognition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum
- U.S. Public Health Service (DA14100)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA14100, R01DA014100)
- National Center for Research Resources (M01RR000058)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
- Keywords
- working memory, executive function, attentional control, task switching, inhibitory control, working memory load, rehearsal, attentional control theory, cue-induced craving, depression, addiction
- MeSH terms
- Attention, Cognition, Cues, Humans, Memory, Reaction Time, Semantics
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