Description
TitleThe external-internal loop of interference
Date Created2015
Other Date2015-01 (degree)
Extent1 online resource (v, 42 p. : ill.)
DescriptionAttention is a component of the working memory system responsible for keeping track of relevant information. Activities in the real world are often plagued by interference, and the source of this interference, either external or internal, might matter a great deal to individual differences in attention. By definition, external attention (also called “selective attention”) protects working memory against sensorial distractors of all kinds, while internal attention (also called “inhibition”) protects working memory against emotional impulses, irrelevant information from memory, and automatically-generated responses. At present, it is unclear if these two types of attention exist in non-human animals, and how they might impact performance on other cognitive processes, such as learning. By using a battery of diverse attention tests, here we aimed both to explore this issue, and to obtain a robust (and less task-specific) measure of attention in mice. Exploratory factor analyses revealed two factors (that, due to the design of the tests, we interpreted as external and internal attentions) accounting, in total, for 73% of the variance in attentional performance. Then, confirmatory factor analyses showed an excellent fit of the model of attention sub-divided as external and internal (with a resulting correlation of 0.43), while, contrary to our expectation, the model of attention as one general factor did not fit the data. Regarding the relationship between attention and learning (from the preparatory tasks of acquisition required for our tests of attention), higher resistance against external sources of interference promoted better learning under novel circumstances, but tended to impair performance when cognitive flexibility was required, while the opposite pattern occurred for individuals with high internal attention. The results here suggest that there can be, at least, two types of attention behind the common variance in attention tasks in mice, and that external and internal attentions might have opposing influences on learning.
NoteM.S.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Noteby Bruno Sauce Silva
Genretheses, ETD graduate
Languageeng
CollectionGraduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.