Identifying the properties of memories that enable attentional guidance

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2748974_(Table of contents)

While the ability of memory representations to guide attention has been traditionally argued to be due to the direction of internal attention to these representations, a recent study proposed that memory precision enables attentional guidance. In the first part of the present work, we aimed to compare internal attention and precision by manipulating them independently. In Experiment 1, in each trial, two colors were shown. On 70% of the trials, these memory items were sequentially tested. On the remaining 30%, a search task was given to measure attentional guidance. Before either task, a retro-cue indicated which color would be tested first, thus, should be attended. Critically, participants were incentivized to maintain higher precision representation for the second color with difficulty, reward, and feedback. Experiments 2 and 3 controlled for output interference and the automatic retro-cue effects, respectively. In all experiments, the cued item was reported more accurately, despite the incentives for the uncued item, indicating that isolating internal attention and precision in working memory is unattainable. Due to this obstacle, in the second part, we reconsidered precision and internal attention by involving long-term memory. First, to reliably measure attentional guidance, Experiment 4 replicated it with a revised design. Then, Experiment 5 manipulated memory precision by repeating a memory item throughout 5 trials. As the memory precision improved with repetitions, attentional guidance diminished, suggesting that internal attention governs memory-guided attention, rather than memory precision. Overall, the present work implies that (1) working memory precision relies on internal attention, and (2) attentional guidance is driven by internal attention rather than precision.