Journal article
The Relationship Between Visual Attention and Visual Working Memory Encoding: A Dissociation Between Covert and Overt Orienting
Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, Vol.42(8), pp.1121-1138
08/2016
DOI: 10.1037/xhp0000212
PMCID: PMC4977214
PMID: 26854532
Abstract
There is substantial debate over whether visual working memory (VWM) and visual attention constitute a single system for the selection of task-relevant perceptual information or whether they are distinct systems that can be dissociated when their representational demands diverge. In the present study, we focused on the relationship between visual attention and the encoding of objects into VWM. Participants performed a color change-detection task. During the retention interval, a secondary object, irrelevant to the memory task, was presented. Participants were instructed either to execute an overt shift of gaze to this object (Experiments 1-3) or to attend it covertly (Experiments 4 and 5). Our goal was to determine whether these overt and covert shifts of attention disrupted the information held in VWM. We hypothesized that saccades, which typically introduce a memorial demand to bridge perceptual disruption, would lead to automatic encoding of the secondary object. However, purely covert shifts of attention, which introduce no such demand, would not result in automatic memory encoding. The results supported these predictions. Saccades to the secondary object produced substantial interference with VWM performance, but covert shifts of attention to this object produced no interference with VWM performance. These results challenge prevailing theories that consider attention and VWM to reflect a common mechanism. In addition, they indicate that the relationship between attention and VWM is dependent on the memorial demands of the orienting behavior.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The Relationship Between Visual Attention and Visual Working Memory Encoding: A Dissociation Between Covert and Overt Orienting
- Creators
- A. Caglar Tas - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, and Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, KnoxvilleSteven J Luck - Center for Mind and Brain and Department of Psychology, University of California, DavisAndrew Hollingworth - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa
- Contributors
- James T Enns (Editor)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, Vol.42(8), pp.1121-1138
- Publisher
- American Psychological Association
- DOI
- 10.1037/xhp0000212
- PMID
- 26854532
- PMCID
- PMC4977214
- ISSN
- 0096-1523
- eISSN
- 1939-1277
- Grant note
- DOI: 10.13039/100000002, name: National Institutes of Health, award: NEI R01EY017356 and NIMH R01MH076226
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 08/2016
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9984213424502771
Metrics
10 Record Views