title: Paying attention to working memory: Similarities in the spatial distribution of attention in mental and physical space.
abstract: Selective attention is not limited to information that is physically present in the external world, but can also operate on mental representations in the internal world. However, it is not known whether the mechanisms of attentional selection operate in similar fashions in physical and mental space. We studied the spatial distributions of attention for items in physical and mental space by comparing how successfully distractors were rejected at varying distances from the attended location. The results indicated very similar distribution characteristics of spatial attention in physical and mental space. Specifically, we found that performance monotonically improved with increasing distractor distance relative to the attended location, suggesting that distractor confusability is particularly pronounced for nearby distractors, relative to distractors farther away. The present findings suggest that mental representations preserve their spatial configuration in working memory, and that similar mechanistic principles underlie selective attention in physical and in mental space.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium. muhammet.sahan@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Muhammet Ikbal
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Sahan
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Verguts
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Carsten Nicolas
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Boehler
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pourtois
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fias
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D003463:Cues; D004215:Distance Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011930:Reaction Time; D013028:Space Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Distractor confusion; Distribution; Mental representations; Orienting; Spatial attention; Working memory