Goal-directed and stimulus-driven selection of internal representations

van Ede, Freek; Alexander Board; Nobre, Anna C. · 2020 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2013432117

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Summary

This study investigates how voluntary (goal-directed) and involuntary (stimulus-driven) attentional mechanisms compete to select internal representations within visual working memory. While the distinction between these two sources of selection is well-established for external sensory stimuli, it remained unclear whether they similarly influence and compete for the selection of memory contents. To address this gap, the authors developed an "anti-retrocue" task designed to disentangle the independent contributions of voluntary prioritization and involuntary feature capture. The experimental design involved participants memorizing two colored, tilted bars. During the memory delay, a retrocue indicated which item would be probed. The study utilized a two-by-two design manipulating cue informativeness (voluntary factor) and color match with the probed item (involuntary factor). "Pro" cues were informative and color-matched the target; "anti" cues were informative but color-matched the distractor; and "null" cues were uninformative but could either match or not match the target's color. This setup allowed the researchers to isolate pure involuntary capture effects (via null cues) and examine competition when voluntary and involuntary signals pointed to different items (anti cues). The study also tracked gaze biases as an oculomotor signature of internal attentional focusing. The results demonstrated that both voluntary and involuntary factors influence memory performance, but through distinct mechanisms. Involuntary color capture significantly improved reproduction accuracy, particularly when cues were uninformative. Conversely, voluntary cue informativeness primarily reduced reaction times. Crucially, gaze tracking revealed that involuntary color features biased gaze toward the matching memory item even when the cue was uninformative. When voluntary and involuntary influences conflicted (anti-retrocues), gaze bias toward the goal item was delayed compared to pro-retrocues, indicating a competition between the two attentional systems. This delay was absent in a follow-up experiment using orientation cues, which lacked strong involuntary capture effects, confirming that the delay resulted from competing attentional forces rather than cue interpretation difficulty. Furthermore, the balance of this competition, as reflected in gaze patterns, predicted subsequent memory-guided behavior quality. The findings provide direct evidence for an involuntary "retro-capture" effect, where external stimuli trigger the selection of feature-matching internal representations. The study concludes that goal-directed and stimulus-driven factors jointly determine the fate of internal representations in working memory, competing for selection in a manner analogous to external attention. This work establishes that the oculomotor system reflects this internal competition and highlights that the interplay between voluntary and involuntary attention extends beyond perception to the maintenance and retrieval of memory.

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• attention selective divided