▪ Abstract The prefrontal cortex has long been suspected to play an important role in cognitive control, in the ability to orchestrate thought and action in accordance with internal goals. Its neural basis, however, has remained a mystery. Here, we propose that cognitive control stems from the active maintenance of patterns of activity in the prefrontal cortex that represent goals and the means to achieve them. They provide bias signals to other brain structures whose net effect is to guide the flow of activity along neural pathways that establish the proper mappings between inputs, internal states, and outputs needed to perform a given task. We review neurophysiological, neurobiological, neuroimaging, and computational studies that support this theory and discuss its implications as well as further issues to be addressed

/pdf/an-integrative-theory-of-prefrontal-cortex-function-2j9unprn5f.pdf

An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function

A visual attention system, inspired by the behavior and the neuronal architecture of the early primate visual system, is presented. Multiscale image features are combined into a single topographical saliency map. A dynamical neural network then selects attended locations in order of decreasing saliency. The system breaks down the complex problem of scene understanding by rapidly selecting, in a computationally efficient manner, conspicuous locations to be analyzed in detail.

/pdf/a-model-of-saliency-based-visual-attention-for-rapid-scene-wv0n3yqxix.pdf

A model of saliency-based visual attention for rapid scene analysis

The two basic phenomena that define the problem of visual attention can be illustrated in a simple example. Consider the arrays shown in each panel of Figure 1. In a typical experiment, before the arrays were presented, subjects would be asked to report letters appearing in one color (targets, here black letters), and to disregard letters in the other color (nontargets, here white letters). The array would then be briefly flashed, and the subjects, without any opportunity for eye movements, would give their report. The display mimics our. usual cluttered visual environment: It contains one or more objects that are relevant to current behavior, along with others that are irrelevant. The first basic phenomenon is limited capacity for processing information. At any given time, only a small amount of the information available on the retina can be processed and used in the control of behavior. Subjectively, giving attention to any one target leaves less available for others. In Figure 1, the probability of reporting the target letter N is much lower with two accompa­ nying targets (Figure la) than with none (Figure Ib). The second basic phenomenon is selectivity-the ability to filter out un­ wanted information. Subjectively, one is aware of attended stimuli and largely unaware of unattended ones. Correspondingly, accuracy in identifying an attended stimulus may be independent of the number of nontargets in a display (Figure la vs Ie) (see Bundesen 1990, Duncan 1980).

Neural Mechanisms of Selective Visual Attention

Miller (1956) summarized evidence that people can remember about seven chunks in short-term memory (STM) tasks. How- ever, that number was meant more as a rough estimate and a rhetorical device than as a real capacity limit. Others have since suggested that there is a more precise capacity limit, but that it is only three to five chunks. The present target article brings together a wide vari- ety of data on capacity limits suggesting that the smaller capacity limit is real. Capacity limits will be useful in analyses of information processing only if the boundary conditions for observing them can be carefully described. Four basic conditions in which chunks can be identified and capacity limits can accordingly be observed are: (1) when information overload limits chunks to individual stimulus items, (2) when other steps are taken specifically to block the recoding of stimulus items into larger chunks, (3) in performance discontinuities caused by the capacity limit, and (4) in various indirect effects of the capacity limit. Under these conditions, rehearsal and long-term memory cannot be used to combine stimulus items into chunks of an unknown size; nor can storage mechanisms that are not capacity- limited, such as sensory memory, allow the capacity-limited storage mechanism to be refilled during recall. A single, central capacity limit averaging about four chunks is implicated along with other, noncapacity-limited sources. The pure STM capacity limit expressed in chunks is distinguished from compound STM limits obtained when the number of separately held chunks is unclear. Reasons why pure capacity estimates fall within a narrow range are discussed and a capacity limit for the focus of attention is proposed.

/pdf/the-magical-number-4-in-short-term-memory-a-reconsideration-3704b9phuz.pdf

The magical number 4 in short-term memory: a reconsideration of mental storage capacity.

http://www.cse.psu.edu/~rtc12/CSE597E/papers/treismanFeatIntegration.pdf

A feature-integration theory of attention

This paper examines relationships between human resource management (HRM), work climate, and organizational performance in the branch network of a retail bank. It extends previous research on group-level climate-performance and HRM-performance relationships and examines how climate and HRM function as joint antecedents of business unit performance. Significant correlations are found between work climate, human resource practices, and business performance. The results show that the correlations between climate and performance cannot be explained by their common dependence on HRM factors, and that the data are consistent with a mediation model in which the effects of HRM practices on business performance are partially mediated by work climate.

The Impact of Human Resource Management and Work Climate on Organizational Performance

Research has shown that organizational subunits where employee perceptions are favourable enjoy superior business performance. The service profit chain model of business performance (Heskett, Sasser, & Schlesinger, 1997) has identified customer satisfaction as a critical intervening variable in this relationship. This paper examines the relationships between organizational climate, employee attitudes, customer satisfaction, and sales performance in the retail-banking sector. The role of customer satisfaction as a mediator between employee attitudes and sales performance is examined in a large sample of bank branches, spanning multiple organizations. Mediation effects are found, which border on significance when the sample size is large, but the effects seem to be too small to be of practical importance. It is argued that alternative formulations of the service profit chain model may provide more powerful explanations of the link between employee attitudes and business performance.

Test of a service profit chain model in the retail banking sector

We argue that current concepts of knowledge management and organizational learning are, by themselves, limited in their ability to improve organizational effectiveness. We show how these concepts may be usefully integrated with organizational creativity and innovation within a single framework that combines the apprehension of knowledge with the creative utilization of such knowledge. Field research and experience are described showing how this framework has been applied to achieve measurable improvements in effectiveness in a wide range of organizations.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/caim_368.pdf?abstractid=889801&mirid=1

The Role of Knowledge Management in the Innovation Process

http://zero-defect.persiangig.com/document/sdarticle.pdf

Garry A. Gelade

Papers

A feature-integration theory of attention

The Impact of Human Resource Management and Work Climate on Organizational Performance

Test of a service profit chain model in the retail banking sector

The Role of Knowledge Management in the Innovation Process

The integration of human resource and operation management practices and its link with performance: A longitudinal latent class study