Retrospective attention suppresses reward-associated interference in visual working memory.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroscience
• Psychology

Background:

• Retrospective cues are believed to prioritize goal-relevant information in visual working memory.
• However, it is not fully understood if they actively suppress interference from non-target stimuli associated with rewards.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how retrospective attention regulates value-driven distraction within memory.
• To examine the role of reward associations and stimulus novelty in memory suppression.

Main Methods:

• A reward-association training phase was combined with a retro-cue paradigm.
• Two eye-tracking experiments were conducted, analyzing behavioral adjustments, guess rates, precision, and microsaccade dynamics.

Main Results:

• High-reward items showed better performance when non-reward stimuli were absent during training, indicating value-based competition.
• When non-reward stimuli were present, this reward difference vanished, and targets were prioritized.
• Microsaccade analyses revealed gaze dynamics favored targets post-cue, and importantly, suppressed attention towards high-reward distractors in Experiment 1.

Conclusions:

• Retrospective attention actively suppresses reward-associated interference in working memory.
• This suppression mechanism is influenced by stimulus novelty encountered during training.
• Findings link behavioral outcomes and oculomotor activity to active suppression controlling value-driven distraction.