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A Dual Task Procedure Combined with Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Test Attentional Blink for Nontargets
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Task-irrelevant memories rapidly gain attentional control with learning.

Eren Gunseli1, Christian N L Olivers1, Martijn Meeter1

  • 1Department of Cognitive Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

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|October 6, 2015
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Visual working memory (VWM) guides attention, but target representations rapidly lose priority in VWM with repeated search. This explains why VWM is crucial yet not solely sufficient for attentional guidance.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Visual Perception

Background:

  • Current visual search theories emphasize visual working memory (VWM) for guiding attention.
  • However, the precise role of VWM priority in attentional guidance remains debated.
  • Perceptual biases often arise from long-term, repeated exposure.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how long target representations maintain priority in VWM during repeated visual search.
  • To examine the influence of memory priority on attentional guidance.
  • To resolve the paradox of VWM's central yet insufficient role in attentional guidance.

Main Methods:

  • A combined visual search and VWM task was employed.
  • Attentional guidance by irrelevant memories was measured.
  • Observers repeatedly searched for the same visual target.

Main Results:

  • Irrelevant memories began guiding attention after the target was repeated only once.
  • This indicates a rapid loss of priority for target representations in VWM.
  • Training led to interference from irrelevant memories, suggesting a shift to long-term memory.

Conclusions:

  • Target representations quickly lose priority in VWM when repeatedly encountered.
  • This rapid priority loss explains why VWM is essential but not solely sufficient for attentional guidance.
  • Findings reconcile the apparent paradox of VWM's role in visual search and attention.