Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, United Kingdom;
Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije University Amsterdam, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Sep 29;117(39):24590-24598. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2013432117. Epub 2020 Sep 14.
Adaptive behavior relies on the selection of relevant sensory information from both the external environment and internal memory representations. In understanding external selection, a classic distinction is made between voluntary (goal-directed) and involuntary (stimulus-driven) guidance of attention. We have developed a task-the anti-retrocue task-to separate and examine voluntary and involuntary guidance of attention to internal representations in visual working memory. We show that both voluntary and involuntary factors influence memory performance but do so in distinct ways. Moreover, by tracking gaze biases linked to attentional focusing in memory, we provide direct evidence for an involuntary "retro-capture" effect whereby external stimuli involuntarily trigger the selection of feature-matching internal representations. We show that stimulus-driven and goal-directed influences compete for selection in memory, and that the balance of this competition-as reflected in oculomotor signatures of internal attention-predicts the quality of ensuing memory-guided behavior. Thus, goal-directed and stimulus-driven factors together determine the fate not only of perception, but also of internal representations in working memory.
适应行为依赖于从外部环境和内部记忆表征中选择相关的感觉信息。在理解外部选择时，经典的区分是注意力的自愿（目标导向）和非自愿（刺激驱动）引导。我们开发了一种任务——反回溯任务——来分离和检查视觉工作记忆中内部表征的自愿和非自愿注意力引导。我们表明，自愿和非自愿因素都会影响记忆表现，但方式不同。此外，通过跟踪与记忆中注意力聚焦相关的注视偏差，我们提供了直接证据，证明存在一种非自愿的“回溯捕获”效应，即外部刺激非自愿地触发特征匹配的内部表征的选择。我们表明，在记忆中，刺激驱动和目标导向的影响竞争选择，这种竞争的平衡——反映在内部注意力的眼动特征中——预测了随后记忆引导行为的质量。因此，目标导向和刺激驱动因素共同决定了不仅是感知的命运，还有工作记忆中内部表征的命运。
