Working Memory and Attention and Reward Distraction

This study strives to comprehend how well an individual can complete an attention and memory task while presented with a distractor. The participant completes two questionnaires and three tasks that include a basic change detection task that measures short term memory, a similar attention task in which they can earn money based on their progress, and a third task that incorporates both attention and memory. / The first questionnaire covers basic demographic and emotional stability statistics. In the first task, the participant is presented with an array of colored bars and must determine if red or green bars changed in orientation over a brief delay. The second task requires them to determine whether the red or green bar in the array lies vertically or horizontally. In the third task, the instructions inform the participant to attend to either yellow or blue colored bars. An arrow then directs them to attend to the right or left of a centered fixation cross, then two arrays of bars flash--one on each side of the cross--and, after a brief delay, the arrays flash again. The participant must determine whether the orientation of the bars of the color and location they attended to changed or remained the same. The final questionnaire asks the participant if they noticed which bar resulted in a higher reward and what their motivation levels were for each task. / First, we measure their ability to detect a change in the color of a probe square within a given time. Then, once connected to the EEG, the participant determines certain colored lines’ orientation and can earn money for responses that succeed the last task’s results, with one color providing a higher reward than the other. Finally, they must complete a task measuring both their attention and memory, but, in order to do well in this task, they must ignore bars of the colors from the previous task where they earned money. / Currently, the experiment still remains in progress, therefore nothing can be concluded at this time. The hypothesis exists that the participant will condition certain colored bars with reward and, when presented in the last task, they will serve as a distractor so the participant struggles to control their attention. Also, we believe that individuals that have or have had depression will less likely find motivation to perform better due to a monetary reward.