Research Interests and Publications:

Research in Dr. Awh's laboratory focuses on the cognitive neuroscience of selective attention and working memory. A core area of research uses behavioral and neural measures to examine the core factors that determine capacity in working memory, and the relationship between these capacity limits and other measures of attentional control. In addition, a more recent line of research seeks to understand how precise representations of visual detail can be held in working memory, using psychophysical paradigms and multi-voxel pattern classification and functional MRI. Another line of research focuses on how attention may help to resolve visual interference, and how this process is sensitive to the probability of interference at different target locations. We are using behavioral paradigms, functional MRI, and event-related potentials to characterize the functional and neural substrates of this process. In addition, we have preliminary data that indicate a severe deficit in the resolution of visual interference amongst a subset of subjects with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a topic that is the focus of a five year NIMH project.

Selected Publications:

Barton, B., Ester, E., & Awh, E. (in press). Discrete resource allocation in visual working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.

Serences, J., Ester, E., Vogel, E.K., & Awh, E. (2009).  Stimulus-specific delay activity in human primary visual cortex. Psychological Science, 20(2), 207-214.

Awh, E., Barton, B., Vogel, E.K. (in press). Visual working memory represents a fixed number of items, regardless of complexity. Psychological Science.

Awh, E., Armstrong, K.M. & Moore, T. (2006). Visual and oculomotor selection: links, causes and implications for spatial attention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10(3), 124-130.

Awh, E., Sgarlata, A.M., Kliestik, J. (2005). Resolving visual interference during covert spatial orienting: Online Attentional Control Through Static Records of Prior Visual Experience. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Serences, J., Yantis, S., Culberson, A. & Awh, E. (2004). Preparatory activity in visual cortex indexes distractor suppression during covert spatial orienting. Journal of Neurophysiology.

Awh E., Serences, J., Laurey, P., Dhaliwal, H., van der Jagt, T., & Dassonville, P. (2004). Unimpaired Face Discrimination During the Attentional Blink: Evidence for Multiple Processing Channels. Cognitive Psychology, 48, 95-126.

Awh, E., & Jonides, J. (2001). Overlapping mechanisms of attention and working memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5(3), 119-126.