Voluntary and automatic attentional control of visual working memory

Schmidt, Brandon K.; Vogel, Edward K.; Woodman, Geoffrey F.; Luck, Steven J. · 2002 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.3758/bf03194742

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This study investigates whether spatial attention controls the transfer of perceptual representations into visual working memory (VWM), distinguishing this process from mere perceptual enhancement. While previous research established that attention improves perceptual processing, it remained unclear if attended items receive priority for entry into VWM, particularly when verbal recoding is prevented. The authors aimed to determine if both voluntary cues and automatic attentional capture by sudden onsets facilitate the storage of visual information in VWM. To address this, the researchers conducted four experiments using a color-change detection task. Participants viewed arrays of colored squares and later identified if a probe square matched the color of a specific location in the original array. To isolate visual working memory from verbal strategies, participants performed articulatory suppression (repeating digits aloud) throughout trials. Experiment 1 utilized predictive and non-predictive spatial cues presented before the memory array. Experiment 2 employed a sudden-onset paradigm, where a new square appeared among placeholders to test automatic attentional capture. Experiment 3 served as a control to ensure that onset items were not inherently more memorable than non-onset items independent of attention. Experiment 4 presented cues *after* the memory array offset to rule out the possibility that cues merely enhanced the initial perceptual representation rather than controlling memory transfer. The results demonstrated that spatial cues significantly improved VWM performance. In Experiment 1, accuracy was 15–40% higher for cued locations compared to uncued locations, even when cues were non-predictive. Experiment 2 showed that sudden onsets automatically biased memory storage, with higher accuracy for onset items than non-onset items, an effect confirmed to be attention-driven rather than perceptual by Experiment 3. Crucially, Experiment 4 revealed that cues presented after the memory array still produced a significant validity effect, indicating that attention directs the transfer of existing perceptual representations into VWM rather than just enhancing perception. These findings provide direct evidence that spatial attention governs the selection of information for visual working memory. The study confirms that both voluntary attention and automatic capture by visual transients prioritize the encoding of attended stimuli into VWM. This extends previous work by demonstrating that attention’s role in memory is distinct from its role in perception and persists even when verbal coding is suppressed. The results support theoretical models proposing that attention acts as a gatekeeper for VWM, determining which perceptual representations are maintained for later use.

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-26; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• attention selective divided