The role of short-term memory for predictive processes

• Applicant: Dr. Sabrina Trapp
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2018 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 411743799

Our perceptual system shows an amazing efficiency in identifying sensory input, despite noise, ambiguity, and considerable variations in the way it is presented. How does the brain solve this computational problem? In cognitive neuroscience, there is broad consensus that a main avenue towards understanding brain functioning is to unravel the mechanisms of predictions. The idea of Predictive Coding frameworks is that sensory input is interpreted based on prior information, and only deviations or prediction errors are fed forward in the cortical hierarchy (Rao & Ballard, 1999). Although these and related ideas have been implemented on a computational basis and pitted against behavioral or neural data, the reference to psychological processes remains sparse. One option is that the sensory input is being compared to all prior information stored in long-term memory (LTM). Given the high speed with which perception is accomplished, this seems rather unlikely. Alternatively, the brain could use a mechanism that highlights and temporarily maintains that part of prior knowledge which is relevant for the perceptual decision at hand. In most cognitive models, STM is considered as elevated LTM activity that tags a selected part as relevant for current processing. The goal of our proposal is to flesh out the neural and temporal mechanisms that underlie the usage of STM for the process of prediction, and to investigate a possible functional role of the STM capacity limitation in the context of prediction.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Erich Schröger