PubMed · 5970183
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G Hakerem, S Sutton. 1966-10-29. Pupillary response at visual threshold.. https://doi.org/10.1038/212485a0
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This paper presents a concise review of the development of limited capacity metaphors for explaining performance limits. Capacity views have been mainly inspired by limited capacity computers of the sixties and seventies, which are now replaced by parallel distributed processors with a virtually unlimited capacity. This is among the reasons that the view is no longer popular, while, in addition, the predictions of the notion of a simple unidimensional pool of resources have failed to be confirmed. The alternative assumption of multiple resources runs the risk of becoming too loose a set of faculties without internal coherence. There is a similar problem, with Fleishman's mental abilities approach which is based on factor-analysis. Yet, this approach has had some success as a taxonomy for complex tasks and deserves, therefore, more close scrutiny. At present, the theoretical emphasis is on connectionist notions of confusion and interference, which are more in line with stage-like views on information processing However, so far, they suffer from unsufficiently detailed constraints to predict performance in concrete dual tasks. This may be the reason that, as yet, they have not led to much new experimental research.
In this review studies are evaluated that have utilized middle-latency and late components of the event-related potential (ERP) as indices of the activation of processing resources. Processing resources are defined as energetical systems that modulate cognitive processes or data processing systems. An essential element of the resource conceptualization is the idea that processing structures receive not only information input but also input from these energetical systems. It is argued further that the principal role of these systems is to provide the 'gain' for the data processing systems. In reviewing these studies special attention is paid to factors affecting the amplitude of ERP components in single- and dual-task studies, and to the inferences that can be drawn about which particular types of processing resources are reflected in these changes in component amplitudes. Finally, a working model is presented relating middle-latency and late ERP components to specific perceptual, perceptual-central and central processing resources.
A recent development in the cognitive modelling of visual selective attention is the incorporation of design principles derived from the neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of the primate visual system. In this paper, we describe these recent 'neurocognitive' models in more detail, point out the underlying neurobiological principles, and show that in all cases attention is implemented as an energetical resource which can be directed to representations and pathways in the system. In the second part of the paper, we specify the predictions derived from this 'energy hypothesis', and evaluate available data pertaining to this issue. We present new analyses of electrophysiological data in order to directly test the hypothesis that attention modulates feature-specific representations. It will be shown that in the case of sustained spatial attention, the data are in agreement with this hypothesis, whereas in the case of nonspatial attention, there is no evidence of a modulation of feature-specific pathways by attention.