Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Interactions between visual working memory and selective attention.

P E Downing1

  • 1Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. p.downing@bangor.ac.uk

Psychological Science
|February 24, 2001
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Evidencing a place for the hippocampus within the core scene processing network.

Human brain mapping·2016
Same author

The effect of personal grooming on self-perceived body image.

International journal of cosmetic science·2014
Same author

Extrastriate cortex and medial temporal lobe regions respond differentially to visual feature overlap within preferred stimulus category.

Neuropsychologia·2012
Same author

Domain specificity in visual cortex.

Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)·2005
Same author

A cortical area selective for visual processing of the human body.

Science (New York, N.Y.)·2001
Same author

fMRI evidence for objects as the units of attentional selection.

Nature·1999

Visual working memory actively guides selective attention, not just the other way around. Holding an object in mind biases attention towards matching items when new objects appear.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Visual Perception

Background:

  • Traditionally, selective attention was viewed as filtering information for working memory.
  • The role of working memory in directing attention was less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if the contents of visual working memory influence the guidance of selective attention.
  • To test the bidirectional relationship between working memory and attention.

Main Methods:

  • Participants held a sample object in visual working memory.
  • Subsequently, two objects were presented: one matching the sample, one novel.
  • A probe task measured attentional deployment.

Main Results:

Related Experiment Videos

  • Attention was significantly biased towards the object that matched the item held in working memory.
  • This effect was consistent across different object types and tasks.
  • A control task without memory requirements did not show this attentional bias.

    • Conclusions:

    • Working memory contents actively influence the guidance of selective attention.
    • This demonstrates a reciprocal interaction between working memory and attention.
    • Findings challenge the unidirectional model of attention influencing working memory.