Working memory and the guidance of visual attention: Consonance-driven orienting

Huang, Liqiang; Pashler, Harold · 2007 · Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

DOI: 10.3758/bf03194042

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Summary

This paper investigates the role of working memory in guiding visual attention, specifically testing the hypothesis of "consonance-driven orienting." The authors propose that maintaining an item in working memory automatically attracts attention to stimuli in the visual field that are related to that item, either visually or semantically. While previous research suggested this effect exists, those studies often involved competing top-down attentional demands, resulting in modest effects. This study aimed to determine whether consonance-driven orienting can exert a decisive influence on attention when no other explicit attentional goals are present. The researchers conducted two experiments using a paradigm where subjects maintained a prime item in working memory while selecting a digit superimposed on one of three background items. In Experiment 1, subjects memorized a random shape (the prime) and later chose one of three digits superimposed on background shapes. One background shape was identical to the prime (the critical shape), while the others were unrelated. Experiment 1A tested simultaneous presentation, while Experiment 1B introduced an 800-millisecond delay between the background shapes and the digits. Experiment 2 replaced shapes with words; subjects memorized a prime word and selected a digit from three background words, one of which was semantically related to the prime (e.g., "atom" and "molecule") but visually distinct. This experiment systematically varied the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the words and digits (400, 800, 1,600, and 3,200 msec). The results demonstrated a strong preference for attending to items related to the working memory content. In Experiment 1, subjects were significantly more likely to report the digit associated with the critical shape when it matched the current prime, raising the selection probability from a chance level of 33% to 45% (simultaneous) and 77% (800-msec delay). Crucially, this effect disappeared when the critical shape matched a prime from a previous trial, indicating the mechanism is tied to active working memory rather than long-term memory. Experiment 2 confirmed that semantic relationships also drive attention; subjects preferred the semantically related word, with the effect increasing as the SOA lengthened from 400 to 800 msec but plateauing thereafter. The authors conclude that consonance-driven orienting is a powerful, automatic mechanism for top-down attention control that operates independently of explicit task goals. The effect is specific to currently active working memory contents and unfolds over approximately one second. These findings suggest that in daily life, where explicit attentional instructions are often absent, the contents of working memory significantly guide where attention is directed, supporting theories of biased competition and highlighting the functional integration of memory and attention systems.

Key finding

Maintaining an item in working memory automatically directs visual attention toward background stimuli that are visually identical or semantically related to the memorized item.

Methodology

lab_experiment

Sample size: 88

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• attention selective divided