This thesis investigates predictions from prominent conflict theories of cognitive control that information experienced under high conflict conditions should be better encoded. More specifically, recent research suggests that selectively attending to relevant stimuli while ignoring conflicting stimuli can lead to better memory. These ideas have been broadly discussed in the desirable difficulty literature – described by instances where increasing difficulty during initial task performance leads to better later memory. As a growing number of studies have attempted to produce these effects with mixed success, calls for more focused investigations into the underlying mechanisms have been made. This encoding benefit for high-control-demand or high-difficulty situations has been broadly conceptualized as a task-general property, where all activated representations should be better encoded. The goal of this thesis was to investigate whether memory-enhancing effects of difficulty manipulations depend on inducing additional cognitive control at particular information processing stages. This thesis documents some of the first work showing that the within-task locus of conflict and attentional control is critical to whether later memory benefits are seen – conflict/control focused on semantic item representation produces better memory, but conflict/control focused away from item representations at response selection gives no memory benefit. These findings and theory are then extended to physiological measures of pupil dilation and sequential (Grattron-like) conflict/control situations. This thesis proposes a stage-specific conflict-encoding model which complements and extends current leading theories of conflict-driven cognitive control. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / There is an intuitive notion that making a learning experience hard will hinder memory of that information later on. Contrary to this belief, in certain circumstances, making learning difficult can actually enhance the memory of that information – this has been termed desirable difficulty. The issue with these desirable difficulties is that they are only sometimes effective. Originally it was proposed that general task-wide difficulty would lead to an enhancement in memory. This thesis, however, provides evidence suggesting that task difficulty is stage-specific in nature, meaning that for the difficulty to enhance memory, the difficulty needs to be at a specific stage of cognitive processing. For difficulty to have a beneficial effect on memory, the particular difficulty needs to focus an individual’s attention on the core meaning of what they are trying to remember, or else the difficulty will direct attention away from this important information causing a possible decrease in memory. These findings provide a framework for how and when to use difficulty as a means to enhance learning.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/24931 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Ptok, Melissa |
| Contributors | Scott, Watter, Psychology |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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