Feature-based memory-driven attentional capture: Visual working memory content affects visual attention.

Olivers, Christian N. L.; Meijer, Frank; Theeuwes, Jan · 2006 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1037/0096-1523.32.5.1243

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Summary

This study investigates whether visual attention and visual working memory share common content representations, specifically testing the hypothesis that items held in working memory automatically capture visual attention. Previous research provided mixed evidence, often confounded by priming effects or strategic task overlap. To address these limitations, Olivers, Meijer, and Theeuwes conducted seven experiments using a dual-task paradigm where participants performed a visual search task while simultaneously maintaining a visual memory load. The design ensured that the memory task and search task were distinct, minimizing the possibility that participants strategically used memory content to aid search performance. The experimental procedure involved presenting participants with a colored disk to remember (or merely view in control conditions), followed by a visual search display containing a shape-defined target and potential color-defined singleton distractors. The critical manipulation was whether the singleton distractor’s color matched the memorized item, was unrelated, or was absent. Experiments 1 through 6 varied the nature of the memory representation (verbal vs. visual), the relevance of features to the memory task, and the status of the memorized item (active vs. forgotten). Experiment 7 utilized eye-tracking to distinguish between attentional capture and delayed disengagement. The results demonstrated that visual working memory content significantly influences attentional capture. In Experiment 1, which used easily verbalizable colors, memory load increased distractor interference generally, but no content-specific capture was observed. However, in Experiments 2 and 3, where stimuli were designed to encourage visual rather than verbal encoding, singleton distractors matching the memorized color caused significantly greater interference than unrelated distractors. This content-specific effect was robust: it occurred only for features relevant to the memory task (Experiment 4), did not persist for items that were allowed to be forgotten (Experiments 5 and 6), and was not due to strategic task overlap. Furthermore, Experiment 7 revealed that memory-matching distractors attracted more eye movements but did not prolong fixation duration, indicating that the interference stemmed from increased attentional capture rather than difficulty disengaging from the distractor. These findings provide strong evidence for memory-driven attentional capture, supporting the biased competition model’s prediction that working memory representations preactivate perceptual features, thereby biasing attention toward matching stimuli. The study concludes that visual working memory and visual attention operate on shared content-specific representations. The automaticity of this capture is contingent on the nature of the memory representation; it is most pronounced when the memory content is visual and difficult to verbalize. This work clarifies the functional relationship between memory and attention, showing that holding an item in working memory involuntarily prioritizes its features in the visual field, even when such prioritization is detrimental to the current task.

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• attention selective divided
• visual search