Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University.
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 2013 Dec;39(6):1786-96. doi: 10.1037/a0032548. Epub 2013 Apr 8.
Many factors influence visual search, including how much targets stand out (i.e., their visual salience) and whether they are currently relevant (i.e., Are they in working memory?). Although these are two known influences on search performance, it is unclear how they interact to guide attention. The present study explored this interplay by having participants hold an item in memory for a subsequent test while simultaneously conducting a multiple-target visual search. Importantly, the memory item could match one or neither of two targets from the search. In Experiment 1, when the memory item did not match either target, participants found a high-salience target first, demonstrating a baseline salience effect. This effect was exaggerated when a high-salience target was in working memory and completely reversed when a low-salience target was in memory, demonstrating a powerful influence of working memory guidance. Experiment 2 amplified the salience effect by including very high-salience, "pop-out"-like targets. Yet this salience effect was still attenuated when the memory item matched a less salient target. Experiment 3 confirmed these were memory-based effects and not priming. Collectively, these findings illustrate the influential role of working memory in guiding visual attention, even in the face of competing bottom-up salience cues.
许多因素会影响视觉搜索，包括目标的突出程度（即其视觉显著性）和它们当前的相关性（即它们是否在工作记忆中？）。虽然这是两个已知的影响搜索性能的因素，但它们如何相互作用以引导注意力尚不清楚。本研究通过让参与者在记忆中保留一个项目以备后续测试，同时进行多目标视觉搜索，来探索这种相互作用。重要的是，记忆项目既可以与搜索中的两个目标之一匹配，也可以不匹配。在实验 1 中，当记忆项目与两个目标都不匹配时，参与者首先找到了一个高显著性的目标，表现出了基线显著性效应。当高显著性目标在工作记忆中时，这种效应会被夸大，而当低显著性目标在记忆中时，这种效应会完全反转，这表明工作记忆引导的强大影响。实验 2 通过包含非常高显著性的“突出”目标来放大显著性效应。然而，当记忆项目与不太显著的目标匹配时，这种显著性效应仍然会减弱。实验 3 证实了这些都是基于记忆的效应，而不是启动效应。总的来说，这些发现说明了工作记忆在引导视觉注意力方面的重要作用，即使在存在竞争的自下而上的显著性线索的情况下也是如此。
