Journal article
The Architecture of Interaction Between Visual Working Memory and Visual Attention
Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, Vol.44(7), pp.992-1011
07/2018
DOI: 10.1037/xhp0000509
PMCID: PMC6037540
PMID: 29629781
Abstract
In five experiments, we examined whether a task-irrelevant item in visual working memory (VWM) interacts with perceptual selection when VWM must also be used to maintain a template representation of a search target. This question is critical to distinguishing between competing theories specifying the architecture of interaction between VWM and attention. The single-item template hypothesis (SIT) posits that only a single item in VWM can be maintained in a state that interacts with attention. Thus, the secondary item should be inert with respect to attentional guidance. The multiple-item template hypothesis (MIT) posits that multiple items can be maintained in a state that interacts with attention; thus, both the target representation and the secondary item should be capable of guiding selection. This question has been addressed previously in attention capture studies, but the results have been ambiguous. Here, we modified these earlier paradigms to optimize sensitivity to capture. Capture by a distractor matching the secondary item in VWM was observed consistently across multiple types of search task (abstract arrays and natural scenes), multiple dependent measures (search reaction time (RT) and oculomotor capture), multiple memory dimensions (color and shape), and multiple search stimulus dimensions (color, shape, common objects), providing strong support for the MIT.
Public Health Significance
Many real-world tasks require that participants search or monitor for multiple targets. For example, a baggage screener might need to search for multiple different types of weapons. In the present study, we examined whether participants can maintain multiple representations in visual working memory that guide attention simultaneously to different objects. The results have implications both for theoretical accounts of visual search and for the practical application of these theories to real-world contexts.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The Architecture of Interaction Between Visual Working Memory and Visual Attention
- Creators
- Brett Bahle - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, The University of IowaValerie M Beck - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, The University of IowaAndrew Hollingworth - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, The University of Iowa
- Contributors
- Isabel Gauthier (Editor)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, Vol.44(7), pp.992-1011
- Publisher
- American Psychological Association
- DOI
- 10.1037/xhp0000509
- PMID
- 29629781
- PMCID
- PMC6037540
- ISSN
- 0096-1523
- eISSN
- 1939-1277
- Grant note
- DOI: 10.13039/100000002, name: National Institutes of Health, award: R01EY017356; name: National Science Foundation
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 07/2018
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9984002421702771
Metrics
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