ISSN : 1226-9654
Studies of attention and working memory address that working memory contents guide attention to the memory-matching object in the scene. The present study investigated whether familiarity of working memory contents modulates the memory-based attention allocation. We measured the attention allocation by comparing response times (RT) for memory-matching or non-matching probes while maintaining either novel or familiar object in working memory. When a novel object was maintained in working memory, probe RTs at the memory-match object were significantly faster than those on non-match object (Experiment 1). However, when participants maintained a familiar or highly learned object in working memory, there was no probe RT advantage for the memory-match object (Experiments 2, 3, and 4). These results demonstrate that working memory does not automatically bias attention towards the memory-matching item; instead, the bias was present only for novel working memory contents. Thus, the guidance of attention by working memory contents could be due to a top-down strategy where participants re-sample the memory item in the visual array in order to reduce the cognitive complexity of working memory maintenance.
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