TY  - JOUR
A1  - Oberauer, Klaus
T1  - Is the focus of attention in working memory expanded through practice?
N2  - This article reinvestigates the claim by P. Verhaeghen, J. Cerella, and C. Basak (2004) that the focus of attention in working memory can be expanded from 1 to 4 items through practice. Using a modified version of Verhaeghen et al.'s n-back paradigm, Experiments 1 and 3 show that a signature of a one-item focus, the time cost for switching between items in working memory, persists over practice. Verhaeghen et al. reported a shift over practice from a step function to a linear slope of reaction times over set size and argued that it reflects the expansion of the focus. With an improved counterbalancing scheme, a continuously increasing slope was found even without practice in Experiment 2. The results question the hypothesis that the focus is expanded through practice. They are in line with predictions from a model that distinguishes a one-item focus from a direct-access region holding about 4 items
Y1  - 2006
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/12050
UR  - http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/xlm/
ER  -