The effects of search-irrelevant working memory content on visual search

Calleja, Marissa Ortiz; Willoughby, Adrian R. · 2023 · Crossref

DOI: 10.3758/s13414-022-02634-9

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Summary

This study investigates whether information held in working memory (WM) that is irrelevant to a visual search task can influence attentional guidance, specifically examining if distractors matching or semantically related to the memorized item slow search performance. While previous research established that WM representations guide attention, it was unclear if this effect extends to complex, real-world objects and semantic relationships when the WM content is not the search target. The authors aimed to determine if search-irrelevant WM content biases attention toward visually identical or semantically associated distractors, and whether this interference persists when the search target is present in the display. The researchers conducted two experiments using a dual-task paradigm where participants memorized an everyday object and then performed a visual search for a constant target (a cup of coffee) in a two-item array. In Experiment 1, participants viewed color images of objects from the POPORO stimulus set. Distractors were categorized as exact matches (identical to the memory item), semantic matches (semantically related to the memory item), or non-matches. Experiment 2 replicated this design using grayscale images to rule out color similarity as a confounding variable for the semantic match condition. Reaction times (RTs) for detecting the target’s presence or absence were analyzed, with trials requiring correct responses on both memory and search tasks. Results from both experiments demonstrated that distractors matching the WM content significantly slowed visual search compared to non-matching distractors. In Experiment 1, exact-match distractors caused the greatest interference, followed by semantic-match distractors, particularly when the target was present. Experiment 2 confirmed these findings using grayscale stimuli, showing that semantic-match distractors still slowed search times significantly compared to non-matches, thereby ruling out color similarity as the cause. Notably, both exact and semantic match effects were observed on target-present trials, indicating that the search-irrelevant WM representation competed with the target representation for attentional guidance. However, on target-absent trials, semantic-match distractors did not significantly differ from non-matches, while exact matches continued to slow search. These findings extend previous literature by demonstrating that WM-driven attentional guidance applies to complex, real-world objects and is influenced by semantic features, not just visual features. The results suggest that active WM representations, even when task-irrelevant, can bias perceptual processing and capture attention. The authors propose that the constant nature of the search target in their paradigm may have reduced its representational strength in WM, allowing the more actively updated memory item to interfere with search. This highlights the role of representational strength in determining which WM contents guide attention and confirms that semantic associations alone are sufficient to influence visual search performance.

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Topics

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• visual search
• inattentional change blindness