ReviewTrends in cognitive sciences2021
Distraction in Visual Working Memory: Resistance is Not Futile.
Review in Trends in cognitive sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 85 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
85 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Negative emotion reduces visual working memory recall variability: A meta-analytical review.Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · 2023Pooled it
- Distractor filtering and task load in working memory training in healthy older adults.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- L-DOPA administration shifts the stability-flexibility balance towards attentional capture by distractors during a visual search task.Psychopharmacology · 2022Trial
- Exploring Neural Mechanisms Underlying Error-related Impairments in Active Working Memory Suggests an Adaptive Shielding of Contents during Cognitive Control.Journal of cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Memory recall errors reflect interacting sensory and mnemonic representations.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Article
- The oblique effect in visual working memory is enhanced by distraction, regardless of tDCS manipulations.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Spatial and Temporal Characteristics of Distractor-Induced Repulsion Effect in Visual Working Memory: A Behavioral and ERP Study.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
- Reward-based prioritization and perceptual feature effects on attentional flexibility in working memory.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2026Article
- Visual field inhomogeneities and the architectonics of early visual cortex shape visual working memory.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2026Article
- Spatial reorganization of object representations in high-level visual cortex distinguishes working memory from perception.Science advances · 2026Article
- Executive Function Costs of Fantastical Interference in Narrative Comprehension: A Response to Lillard's (2026) Commentary.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Retinotopic Spatial Working Memory Representations Are Not Affected by Task-irrelevant Visual Stimuli.Journal of cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- From comparative connectomics to large-scale working memory modeling in macaque and marmoset.Cell reports · 2026Article
- Tuning out emotional distractors by tuning in theta rhythm: improving visual working memory using transcranial magnetic stimulation.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2026Article
- When similarity is less disruptive: feature-sharing distractors in visual working memory under diffuse attention.Frontiers in cognition · 2026Article
- A multichannel MEG time-frequency analysis framework for detecting stage -specific effects of spatial distraction in visual-spatial working memory.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Bias in Visual Short-Term Memory for Motion Induced by Perceptually Suppressed Distractors.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Adolescent stress exposure induces persistent, sex-specific cognitive deficits.Neurobiology of learning and memory · 2025Article
- Sensory reformatting for a working visual memory.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2025Review
- Motor Control Processes Moderate Visual Working Memory Gating.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
25 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Over half a century of research focused on understanding how working memory is capacity constrained has overshadowed the fact that it is also remarkably resistant to interference. Protecting goal-relevant information from distraction is a cornerstone of cognitive function that involves a multifaceted collection of control processes and storage mechanisms. Here, we discuss recent advances in cognitive psychology and neuroscience that have produced new insights into the nature of visual working memory and its ability to resist distraction. We propose that distraction resistance should be an explicit component in any model of working memory and that understanding its behavioral and neural correlates is essential for building a comprehensive understanding of real-world memory function.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.