The priority state of items in visual working memory determines their influence on early visual processing
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: • Participants can flexibly alter the priority state of different items in visual working memory. • Prioritized items influence early visual processing more than non-prioritized ones. • Flexible prioritization allows for memory-guided behavior with changing task-goals. • Flexible prioritization permits memory-guided behavior in dynamic visual environments. • Previously prioritized items’ influence on perception persists, even if irrelevant. Items held in visual working memory (VWM) influence early visual processing by enhancing memory-matching visual input. Depending on current task demands, memory items can have different priority states. Here, we investigated how the priority state of items in VWM affects two key aspects of early visual processing: access to visual awareness and attention allocation. We used three perceptual tasks: the breaking continuous flash suppression task (Experiment 1), the attentional capture task (Experiment 2), and a visual search task (Experiment 3). We found that stimuli matching prioritized VWM items yielded a large perceptual advantage over stimuli matching non-prioritized VWM items (despite minimal memory loss). Additionally, stimuli matching non-prioritized memory items exhibited a (small but consistent) perceptual advantage over VWM-unrelated stimuli. Taken together, observers can flexibly de-prioritize and re-prioritize VWM contents based on current task demands, allowing observers to exert control over the extent to which VWM contents influence concurrent visual processing.
Source: Consciousness and Cognition
Authors: Dan Wang, Samson Chota, Luzi Xu, Stefan Van der Stigchel, Surya Gayet
Institution: Utrecht University
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,120
Award: G8390749053
OpenAlex ID: W4405610582