These findings suggest that allocentric coding of local objects in memory-guided tasks may be particularly sensitive to spatial factors, while more subtle, cognitive factors might exhibit effects unde

The gap

Consensus across the literature

Supporting evidence — 4 representative gaps

• Orienting selective attention within long-term contextual memories (2026) · doi

  Our current experiments are just an initial step in a rich parameter space to be explored. Our experiments manipulated spatial internal attention with hemifield-level spatial cues. Spatial cues can be much more specific than just hemifields. Other types of information can also be used to guide attention, such as object- or feature-related at the sensory level or even higher- level attributes (e.g., relational, affective, or social aspects). Manipulating the type of informative cue (e.g., a centrally presented symbol, salient transient stimulus, or partial reinstatement of a learned feature within the scene) may reveal distinct modulatory attention functions within retrieval. Varying the onset time of cues relative to the scene context and probe array will further help chart the dynamics of attention functions that can influence long- term memory. For example, multiple automatic and controlled modulatory processes may run in parallel and have different behavioral and neural consequences (e.g., van Ede et al., 2020). Furthermore, it will be exciting to extend the experimental approach to dynamic scene contexts (e.g., Staudigl & Hanslmayr, 2013), in which it will also be possible to orient attention to the temporal attributes of events (e.g., Cravo et al., 2017). Furthermore, it is possible to test how the attributes of the long-term memories interact with attention functions. For example, the degree of item similarity impacts their competition during encoding and retrieval (Hutchinson et al., 2016; Kuhl et al., 2011; Wimber et al., 2015). By manipulating different types of item similarity (e.g., spatial proximity or sensory similarity), it will be interesting to test whether the strength of attention effects depends on the degree of competition, as it does in sensory (Kastner & Ungerleider, 2001; Mitchell et al., 2009) and working-memory (Ahmad et al., 2017; Shapiro & Miller, 2011) domains. In addition to the qualities of the associations, their strength and age may also matter. By using separate Learning tasks, the experimenter gains control over these parameters. 4.4.

  Keywords: attention spatial level cues sensory attributes scene functions similarity experiments types feature manipulating within modulatory
• Orienting selective attention within long-term contextual memories (2026) · doi

  Despite its promise, our study has its limitations. The scope of the investigation was limited in two important respects. Only a narrow set of manipulations was performed, and measurements were confined to behavioral variables. The intention was to provide a solid 20 foundation for future research seeking to investigate selective attention within long-term memory retrieval. The initial set of tasks was designed to allow testing of the selection and prioritization of objects associated with individual scenes in long-term memory. It was not possible to assess the nature or precision of the spatial information associated with each object. The significant effects of the spatial cues indicate that spatial information was retained at least at the hemifield level. However, we did not test the granularity of the spatial information available to guide attention to memory associations, nor whether attention can improve the quality of the associations retrieved. Future studies could manipulate the spatial proximity of the items learned within given scenes to test how the degree of spatial competition impacts selective-attention benefits for retrieval. Continuous report measures could also be used to probe the precision of spatial retrieval. Similarly, our 2AFC measure provides little insight into whether selective attention can improve the quality of the non-spatial attributes of the objects retrieved. Responses using a continuous-response modality could provide evidence for whether the retrieval of object features is improved, for example, by using a color wheel to report the color of the retrieved object. The behavioral nature of these proof-of-concept experiments precluded strong inferences about the mechanisms underlying the costs and benefits of selective attention. Although highly sensitive, the used 2AFC response does not provide detailed information regarding the types of decision variables that may be impacted (e.g., response criterion, certainty, and confidence, in addition to sensitivity). Furthermore, our dependent variables, accuracy and response times at the 2AFC decision point, sample the cognitive system only at one, late time point. Therefore, it is not possible to address unambiguously the question of whether attention operates at early or late stages during selective retrieval. By complementing these behavioral studies with neural measures with high temporal resolution, it should be possible to test when selective attention significantly impacts the retrieval process. Studies using EEG or MEG methods can reveal whether selective attention impacts the retrieval process proactively, before the response probe, and, if so, how early in the retrieval process the modulation begins. 4.5.

  Keywords: attention retrieval spatial selective whether response information behavioral variables provide memory possible object test retrieved
• Spatial proximity and scene grammar: shaping spatial representations for memory-guided actions in naturalistic environments (2026) · doi

  These findings suggest that allocentric coding of local objects in memory-guided tasks may be particularly sensitive to spatial factors, while more subtle, cognitive factors might exhibit effects under conditions that remain to be uncovered.

  Keywords: factors suggest allocentric coding local objects memory guided tasks particularly sensitive spatial subtle cognitive exhibit
• Cognitive and Attentional Changes withAge: Evidence from Attentional Blink Deficits (2003) · doi

  Past studies have found age-related attentional deficits using cued location, visual conjunction search, and divided-attention tasks, all spatial measures of attention; however, the physiological basis of these deficits is not fully understood.

  Keywords: deficits attention past found related attentional using cued location visual conjunction search divided tasks spatial