Working memory and the guidance of visual attention: consonance-driven orienting.
Two experiments investigated the potential role of the content of working memory in guiding visual attention. Experiment 1 showed that maintaining a shape in working memory resulted in a decisive preference for moving attention to the same shape in the background when those shapes were task irrelevant. Experiment 2 showed a similar preference for words that were semantically related to an item held in working memory. We suggest that keeping an item active in working memory automatically results in a tendency for attention to be "attracted" to stimuli that are related to that item either visually or semantically.
Huang
Liqiang
L
Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.
Pashler
Harold
H
D001288:Attention; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003118:Color Perception; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011601:Psychophysics; D012660:Semantics; D014706:Verbal Learning