title: The relationship between visual working memory and attention: retention of precise colour information in the absence of effects on perceptual selection.
abstract: We examined the conditions under which a feature value in visual working memory (VWM) recruits visual attention to matching stimuli. Previous work has suggested that VWM supports two qualitatively different states of representation: an active state that interacts with perceptual selection and a passive (or accessory) state that does not. An alternative hypothesis is that VWM supports a single form of representation, with the precision of feature memory controlling whether or not the representation interacts with perceptual selection. The results of three experiments supported the dual-state hypothesis. We established conditions under which participants retained a relatively precise representation of a parcticular colour. If the colour was immediately task relevant, it reliably recruited attention to matching stimuli. However, if the colour was not immediately task relevant, it failed to interact with perceptual selection. Feature maintenance in VWM is not necessarily equivalent with feature-based attentional selection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, , 11 Seashore Hall E, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hollingworth
authors.forename: Seongmin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hwang
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: attention; perceptual selection; visual search; visual short-term memory; visual working memory
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