Research

Research of our unit focuses on issues in Cognitive Neuroscience. Using methods of Biological and Experimental Psychology, processes and architectures of attention, perception, memory, learning, language and judgment are investigated. Our laboratory's equipment has been selected to meet this goal.

For example, one project that belongs to the DFG-Research Group "Working Memory" investigates auditory sensory memory as an informational basis of working memory. Traditionally, research on auditory sensory memory and research on working memory were conducted independently. This project aims at integrating both approaches on a theoretical as well as on experimental level. To this end, the most important characteristics of pre-attentive auditory sensory memory, i. e. functional and structural organization of the memory system, are investigated under un-attend conditions. Attend, i.e. task-relevant, conditions are used to further characterize the functional role of auditory sensory memory for working memory using identical stimulation. A second set of questions addresses auditory sensory memory using experimental protocols from working memory research. Top-down effects of task-dependent processes on obligatory processes of sensory memory are investigated. Both sets of questions aim on the one hand at investigating aspects of sensory memory, viewed as the informational basis of working memory processes. And on the other hand task-dependent modulations of sensory memory function are addressed. A third set of questions addresses potential interference that working memory function causes with obligatory processes of sensory memory.

For this research, event-related brain potentials (ERP) are the most important dependent measure. In contrast to behavioral response time measures, ERPs provide a task-independent, continuous on-line measure of brain activity with a high temporal resolution. Independent of overt behavior, cognitive architecture, and to an extent neural generators as well, can be inferred on the basis of data from both, un-attend and attend, experimental conditions. Thus allowing for a detailed reconstruction of basic pre-attentive and higher-order attentive processes, including working memory.

Further examples of our research can be found on individual members' pages and their lists of publications.