Executive and perceptual attention play different roles in visual working memory: Evidence from suffix and strategy effects.

Hu, Yanmei; Hitch, Graham J.; Baddeley, Alan; Zhang, Ming; Allen, Richard J. · 2014 · Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance

DOI: 10.1037/a0037163

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Summary

This study investigates the distinct roles of executive and perceptual attention in visual working memory, specifically addressing how these mechanisms interact to maintain feature bindings. The research was motivated by conflicting evidence regarding whether attention is required for maintaining bindings versus individual features. The authors propose a model where executive control manages the allocation of resources to a limited-capacity "privileged state" (the focus of attention within the episodic buffer), while perceptual selective attention acts as a feature-based filter to exclude irrelevant stimuli. The researchers conducted four experiments using a sequential presentation paradigm where participants memorized a series of colored shapes and performed cued recall. To test the interference effects, an irrelevant "stimulus suffix" was presented immediately after the memory items. The suffixes were categorized as "plausible" (sharing features with the memory set) or "implausible" (perceptually distinct). Experiments 1 and 2 established baseline performance and the effect of prioritizing recent items through reward structures. Experiments 3 and 4 manipulated task strategies by altering reward payoffs to encourage either recency (favoring late items) or primacy (favoring early items), thereby testing how executive control influences vulnerability to interference. The results demonstrated that a recency effect in recall was selectively reduced by the presence of a suffix, with greater impairment caused by plausible suffixes. This interference manifested primarily as intrusion errors, where features of the suffix were incorrectly recalled. When participants were incentivized to prioritize early items (primacy strategy), a primacy effect emerged alongside recency. Crucially, this executive-driven primacy was also vulnerable to suffix interference, particularly from plausible suffixes. Experiment 4 revealed a trade-off where increased primacy came at the cost of reduced recency. The data showed that items in the privileged state—whether determined by temporal recency or executive priority—were the most accessible for recall but also the most susceptible to retroactive interference from perceptual intrusions. These findings support the conclusion that executive and perceptual attention play different but complementary roles in visual working memory. Executive processes determine which items enter the limited-capacity privileged state based on task goals and temporal position, while perceptual attention protects these representations from external interference. The study suggests that the focus of attention in the episodic buffer is a labile state where high accessibility correlates with high vulnerability to interference, particularly when irrelevant stimuli share features with the memoranda. This framework resolves previous contradictions by distinguishing between executive resource competition and perceptual filtering failures.

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• working memory