Two visual working memory representations simultaneously control attention

Yanan Chen,Feng Du

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-05865-1

Abstract

It has been proposed that only one visual working memory (VWM) representation can be activated to influence perception directly, whereas other VWM representations are accessory items which have little influence on visual selection. The sole active VWM representation might reflect a fundamental bottleneck in the information processing of human beings. However, the present study showed that each of two VWM representations can capture attention and interfere with concurrent visual search. In addition, each of two VWM representations can interfere with concurrent visual search as much as can a single cued VWM representation. Moreover, when two memory-matching distractors appear in visual search, two VWM representations produce a larger memory-driven capture effect than a single memory-matching distractor. Thus, two VWM representations can simultaneously control attention.

Highlights

The contents of visual working memory (VWM) play a critical role in deploying attention and bias perceptual processing toward memory-matching items1
Consistent with this proposition, a target template consumes the sole active slot in VWM when targets vary from trial to trial, an irrelevant stimulus that matches other accessory contents in VWM cannot interfere with concurrent visual search15, 16
The Experiment 1 aimed to examine whether two VWM representations can be automatically activated to interfere with a concurrent visual search

Summary

Introduction

The contents of visual working memory (VWM) play a critical role in deploying attention and bias perceptual processing toward memory-matching items. Only one item in VWM can be activated at a time to serve as an attention template13, 14 Consistent with this proposition, a target template consumes the sole active slot in VWM when targets vary from trial to trial, an irrelevant stimulus that matches other accessory contents in VWM cannot interfere with concurrent visual search . When the target is constant across trials, a distractor that matches the presumably sole active item in VWM delays concurrent visual search relative to a memory-unmatched distractor. The sole active VWM representation might reflect a fundamental bottleneck in human information processing This idea is not supported by some recent findings that irrelevant stimuli matching either of two target colors can involuntarily capture attention. The present study aimed to examine whether two VWM representations can simultaneously guide attention and interfere with concurrent visual search when participants are required to memorize two items with feature conjunctions

Methods

Results

Conclusion