Automatic guidance of visual attention from verbal working memory.

Previous studies have shown that visual attention can be captured by stimuli matching the contents of working memory (WM). Here, the authors assessed the nature of the representation that mediates the guidance of visual attention from WM. Observers were presented with either verbal or visual primes...

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Main Authors: Soto, D, Humphreys, G
Format: Journal article
Sprog:English
Udgivet: 2007
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author Soto, D
Humphreys, G
author_facet Soto, D
Humphreys, G
author_sort Soto, D
collection OXFORD
description Previous studies have shown that visual attention can be captured by stimuli matching the contents of working memory (WM). Here, the authors assessed the nature of the representation that mediates the guidance of visual attention from WM. Observers were presented with either verbal or visual primes (to hold in memory, Experiment 1; to verbalize, Experiment 2; or merely to attend, Experiment 3) and subsequently were required to search for a target among different distractors, each embedded within a colored shape. In half of the trials, an object in the search array matched the prime, but this object never contained the target. Despite this, search was impaired relative to a neutral baseline in which the prime and search displays did not match. An interesting finding is that verbal primes were effective in generating the effects, and verbalization of visual primes elicited similar effects to those elicited when primes were held in WM. However, the effects were absent when primes were only attended. The data suggest that there is automatic encoding into WM when items are verbalized and that verbal as well as visual WM can guide visual attention.
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spelling oxford-uuid:2445cd35-2502-4bda-a3e9-7ca6a10bfe5c2022-03-26T11:49:08ZAutomatic guidance of visual attention from verbal working memory.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:2445cd35-2502-4bda-a3e9-7ca6a10bfe5cEnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2007Soto, DHumphreys, GPrevious studies have shown that visual attention can be captured by stimuli matching the contents of working memory (WM). Here, the authors assessed the nature of the representation that mediates the guidance of visual attention from WM. Observers were presented with either verbal or visual primes (to hold in memory, Experiment 1; to verbalize, Experiment 2; or merely to attend, Experiment 3) and subsequently were required to search for a target among different distractors, each embedded within a colored shape. In half of the trials, an object in the search array matched the prime, but this object never contained the target. Despite this, search was impaired relative to a neutral baseline in which the prime and search displays did not match. An interesting finding is that verbal primes were effective in generating the effects, and verbalization of visual primes elicited similar effects to those elicited when primes were held in WM. However, the effects were absent when primes were only attended. The data suggest that there is automatic encoding into WM when items are verbalized and that verbal as well as visual WM can guide visual attention.
spellingShingle Soto, D
Humphreys, G
Automatic guidance of visual attention from verbal working memory.
title Automatic guidance of visual attention from verbal working memory.
title_full Automatic guidance of visual attention from verbal working memory.
title_fullStr Automatic guidance of visual attention from verbal working memory.
title_full_unstemmed Automatic guidance of visual attention from verbal working memory.
title_short Automatic guidance of visual attention from verbal working memory.
title_sort automatic guidance of visual attention from verbal working memory
work_keys_str_mv AT sotod automaticguidanceofvisualattentionfromverbalworkingmemory
AT humphreysg automaticguidanceofvisualattentionfromverbalworkingmemory