Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Cognition. 2023 Jan;230:105274. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105274. Epub 2022 Sep 13.
Attention has frequently been regarded as an emergent property of linking sensory representations to action plans. It has recently been proposed that similar mechanisms may operate within visual working memory (VWM), such that linking an object in VWM to an action plan strengthens its sensory memory representation, which then expresses as an attentional bias. Here we directly tested this hypothesis by comparing attentional biases induced by VWM representations which were the target of a future action, to those induced by VWM representations that were equally task-relevant, but not the direct target of action. We predicted that the first condition would result in a more prioritized memory state and hence stronger attentional biases. Specifically, participants memorized a geometric shape for a subsequent memory test. At test, in case of a match, participants either had to perform a grip movement on the matching object (action condition), or perform the same movement, but on an unrelated object (control condition). To assess any attentional biases, during the delay period between memorandum and test, participants performed a visual selection task in which either the target was surrounded by the memorized shape (congruent trials) or a distractor (incongruent trials). Eye movements were measured as a proxy for attentional priority. We found a significant interaction for saccade latencies between action condition and shape congruency, reflecting more pronounced VWM-based attentional biases in the action condition. Our results are consistent with the idea that action plans prioritize sensory representations in VWM.
注意力经常被认为是将感觉表示与动作计划联系起来的一种涌现属性。最近有人提出，类似的机制可能在视觉工作记忆（VWM）中起作用，例如，将 VWM 中的一个物体与动作计划联系起来会增强其感觉记忆表示，然后表现为注意力偏向。在这里，我们通过比较 VWM 表示的注意力偏向，直接测试了这一假设，这些 VWM 表示是未来动作的目标，而不是同等任务相关但不是直接动作目标的 VWM 表示。我们预测，第一种情况会导致更优先的记忆状态，从而产生更强的注意力偏向。具体来说，参与者记忆一个几何形状，以备后续的记忆测试。在测试中，如果匹配，参与者要么必须对匹配的物体执行抓握动作（动作条件），要么对不相关的物体执行相同的动作（控制条件）。为了评估任何注意力偏向，在记忆和测试之间的延迟期间，参与者执行了一个视觉选择任务，其中目标要么被记忆形状包围（一致试验），要么被分心物包围（不一致试验）。眼动被用作注意力优先级的代理。我们发现，在动作条件和形状一致性之间的眼跳潜伏期上存在显著的交互作用，反映了在动作条件下更明显的基于 VWM 的注意力偏向。我们的结果与动作计划优先处理 VWM 中的感觉表示的观点一致。
