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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 9, 2025

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Published on: August 1, 2018

Goal-directed and stimulus-driven selection of internal representations.

Freek van Ede^1,2, Alexander G Board^3,4, Anna C Nobre^3,4

¹Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, United Kingdom; freek.van.ede@vu.nl.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|September 15, 2020

Summary

Goal-directed and stimulus-driven factors guide attention in visual working memory. External stimuli can involuntarily capture internal memory representations, influencing behavior.

Keywords:

attention capture memory-guided behavior oculomotor system visual working memory

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Online Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of Dorsomedial and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Cognition Decision Making, and Cognitive Dissonance

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Published on: December 5, 2025

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience

Background:

Adaptive behavior requires selecting relevant sensory information from external and internal sources.
Attention is guided voluntarily (goal-directed) or involuntarily (stimulus-driven).

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a task separating voluntary and involuntary attention guidance to internal memory representations.
To investigate how these factors influence memory performance and behavior.

Main Methods:

Development of the anti-retrocue task.
Tracking gaze biases to identify attentional focusing in memory.
Analyzing oculomotor signatures of internal attention.

Main Results:

Both voluntary and involuntary factors distinctly influence memory performance.
Direct evidence for an involuntary "retro-capture" effect where external stimuli select matching internal representations.
Competition between stimulus-driven and goal-directed influences on memory selection.

Conclusions:

External stimuli can involuntarily capture internal memory representations.
The balance of attentional competition in memory predicts behavioral outcomes.
Both goal-directed and stimulus-driven factors shape perception and working memory.