Perceptual distraction causes attentional but outdated information to intrude into working memory

Previous studies have demonstrated that visual distraction caused by salient distractors disturbs the attentional filtering of task-irrelevant information into working memory (WM), which is formulated as the filter disruption theory. More recently, a distinct category of information has been proposed, termed attended but outdated information, which undergoes a secondary selection by WM that is distinct from initial attentional filtering. In the present study, we investigated whether dynamic distraction by salient stimuli modulates the memory selection of such attended yet outdated information. We employed a combined WM/visual search task in which participants were required to maintain the location of a uniquely colored square while performing a visual search task that involved a memory-irrelevant color feature. One of the nontarget memory items was associated with a salient distractor on half of the trials. The results showed that neither the memory target color nor the non-target color produced memory-driven attentional capture under the salient distractor-absent condition, even on trials with the shortest reaction times (RTs). Importantly, the color of the memory target was incidentally encoded into WM and subsequently elicited attentional capture during visual search under the salient distractor-present condition. Further analysis of the vincentized cumulative RT distribution indicated that such incidental encoding of attended but outdated information occurred in trials with longer RTs. These findings provide novel evidence that perceptual distraction can disrupt the filter-gating WM encoding, allowing attended but outdated information to intrude into WM and capture attention. This advances our understanding of the dynamic interplay between WM and attentional control.