Neural dynam:ics of attention switching and temporal-order information in shc.rt-term memory

Reeves and Sperling (1986) have developed an experimental paradigm and a model to explain how attention switching influences the, storage oftemporal-order information in short-term memory (STM), or working memory. The present article suggests that attention switching influences initial storage of items in STM, but thai; competitive interactions among the STM representations of stored items control the further e,volution of temporal-order information as new items are processed. The laws governing these clompetitive interactions, called the long-term memory (L TM) invariance principle and the STM normalization rule, were originally derived from postulates that ensure that STM is updated in a way that enables temporally stable list learning in L TM to occur. Despite these adaptive constraints, and often because of them, temporal-order information is not always stored veridically. :Both feedforward and feedback STM processes, with different invariant properties, are identified in the storage of temporal-order information.