Three visual working memory representations simultaneously control attention

Michael J King,Brooke N Macnamara

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-67455-y

Michael J King, Brooke N Macnamara

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-67455-y

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Journal: Scientific Reports	Publication Date: Jun 29, 2020
Citations: 2	License type: open-access

Affiliation: Case Western Reserve University

Abstract

How many items can we store in visual working memory while simultaneously conducting a visual search? Previous research has proposed that during concurrent visual search, only one visual working memory representation can be activated to directly influence attention. This previous research suggests that other visual working memory representations are “accessory items”, which have little direct influence on attention. However, recent findings provided evidence that not one, but two visual working memory representations can capture attention and interfere with concurrent visual search. We successfully replicate these findings, and further test whether the capacity of visual working memory during visual search extends to not two, but three representations that influence attention directly. We find evidence that three visual working memory representations can simultaneously control attention.

Highlights

In an exact replication of Chen and Du’s1 Experiment 2, we first tested whether we could reproduce the evidence that two items simultaneously held in visual working memory can bias attention during visual search
Recent findings demonstrating that irrelevant stimuli matching either of two visual working memory representation can involuntarily capture attention, suggest otherwise[19,20,21]. These findings show that visual search can be under simultaneous control of two visual working memory representations, in the form of single featured color stimuli[22]
In two experiments we demonstrated that multiple items held in visual working memory can capture attention and interfere with visual search

Summary

Introduction

In an exact replication of Chen and Du’s1 Experiment 2, we first tested whether we could reproduce the evidence that two items simultaneously held in visual working memory can bias attention during visual search. In Experiment 1, we confirmed Chen and Du’s1 finding that two visual working memory representations can simultaneously control attention. It has not been tested whether two items represent the full active capacity of visual working memory during visual search. To follow up on these results, Experiment 2 investigated whether two items is the limit, or if the capacity can extend to three items in visual working memory that simultaneously control attention during visual search.

Methods

Results

Conclusion