Memory-Driven Attentional Capture Reveals Waxing and Waning in Working Memory Activation

Abstract

Previous research has shown that actively holding information in working memory (WM) results in attentional capture by matching stimuli. Recently, we found that capture can also be driven by residual WM activation resulting from previous processing (Sasin, Nieuwenstein & Johnson, submitted). Here, we compared the capture effects produced by residual and active WM maintenance, and we examined how these capture effects are influenced by an intermediate secondary task. Participants performed a memory or animacy judgment task for a word that was followed in half the trials by an intermediate secondary task, which was in turn followed by an RSVP target identification task in which a picture of the word could be shown just prior to the target. While the animacy task produced a capture effect only in the absence of the intermediate task, the memory task led to a capture effect regardless of the presence of the secondary task.