Abstract
Adaptive behavior relies on the selection of relevant sensory information from both the external environment and internal memory representations. In understanding external selection, a classic distinction is made between voluntary (goal-directed) and involuntary (stimulus-driven) guidance of attention. We have developed a task-the anti-retrocue task-to separate and examine voluntary and involuntary guidance of attention to internal representations in visual working memory. We show that both voluntary and involuntary factors influence memory performance but do so in distinct ways. Moreover, by tracking gaze biases linked to attentional focusing in memory, we provide direct evidence for an involuntary "retro-capture" effect whereby external stimuli involuntarily trigger the selection of feature-matching internal representations. We show that stimulus-driven and goal-directed influences compete for selection in memory, and that the balance of this competition-as reflected in oculomotor signatures of internal attention-predicts the quality of ensuing memory-guided behavior. Thus, goal-directed and stimulus-driven factors together determine the fate not only of perception, but also of internal representations in working memory.
Highlights
Adaptive behavior relies on the selection of relevant sensory information from both the external environment and internal memory representations
Gaze biases provided us with a powerful tool to track attentional allocation to internal representations following both voluntary and involuntary influences and to address what happens when these two fundamental influences are present concurrently and compete for internal selection within working memory
Everyday behavior relies on continuously selecting relevant information from the external environment as well as from internal representations in working memory
Summary
Participants performed a visual working memory task (Fig. 1A) in which they memorized two colored tilted bars over a 3-s delay. The pattern of results revealed a pronounced effect of the involuntary factor, whereby performance was better when the color of the probed memory item matched that of the cue (for both informative and null cues) (Fig. 1B, Left). This was confirmed by a highly robust main effect of color match (F(1,24) = 31.055, P = 9.827e-6, η2 = 0.841). This was confirmed by a highly robust RT benefit of cue informativeness
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