Bottom-up perceptual salience and top-down retro-cues concurrently determine state in visual working memory

2020 ◽  
pp. 174702182096626
Author(s):  
Lingxia Fan ◽  
Lin Zhang ◽  
Liuting Diao ◽  
Mengsi Xu ◽  
Ruiyang Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Salient Feature ◽  
Active State ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Perceptual Salience

Recent studies have demonstrated that in visual working memory (VWM), only items in an active state can guide attention. Further evidence has revealed that items with higher perceptual salience or items prioritised by a valid retro-cue in VWM tend to be in an active state. However, it is unclear which factor (perceptual salience or retro-cues) is more important for influencing the item state in VWM or whether the factors can act concurrently. Experiment 1 examined the role of perceptual salience by asking participants to hold two features with relatively different perceptual salience (colour vs. shape) in VWM while completing a visual search task. Guidance effects were found when either colour or both colour and shape in VWM matched one of the search distractors but not when shape matched. This demonstrated that the more salient feature in VWM can actively guide attention, while the less salient feature cannot. However, when shape in VWM was cued to be more relevant (prioritised) in Experiment 2, we found guidance effects in both colour-match and shape-match conditions. That is, both more salient but non-cued colour and less salient but cued shape could be active in VWM, such that attentional selection was affected by the matching colour or shape in the visual search task. This suggests that bottom-up perceptual salience and top-down retro-cues can jointly determine the active state in VWM.

scholarly journals Top-down and bottom-up influences on saccades in a visual search task

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 449-449
Author(s):  
B. R. Beutter ◽  
J. Toscano ◽  
L. S. Stone
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up

scholarly journals Concurrent Guidance of Attention by Multiple Working Memory Items: Behavioral and Computational Evidence

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cherie Zhou ◽  
Monicque M. Lorist ◽  
Sebastiaan Mathôt
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Behavioral Data ◽  
Drift Diffusion ◽  
Single Item ◽  
Multiple Item

AbstractDuring visual search, task-relevant representations in visual working memory (VWM), known as attentional templates, are assumed to guide attention. A current debate concerns whether only one (Single-Item-Template hypothesis, or SIT) or multiple (Multiple-Item-Template hypothesis, or MIT) items can serve as attentional templates simultaneously. The current study was designed to test these two hypotheses. Participants memorized two colors, prior to a visual-search task in which the target and the distractor could match or not match the colors held in VWM. Robust attentional guidance was observed when one of the memory colors was presented as the target (reduced response times [RTs] on target-match trials) or the distractor (increased RTs on distractor-match trials). We constructed two drift-diffusion models that implemented the MIT and SIT hypotheses, which are similar in their predictions about overall RTs, but differ in their predictions about RTs on individual trials. Critically, simulated RT distributions and error rates revealed a better match of the MIT hypothesis to the observed data than the SIT hypothesis. Taken together, our findings provide behavioral and computational evidence for the concurrent guidance of attention by multiple items in VWM.Significance statementTheories differ in how many items within visual working memory can guide attention at the same time. This question is difficult to address, because multiple- and single-item-template theories make very similar predictions about average response times. Here we use drift-diffusion modeling in addition to behavioral data, to model response times at an individual level. Crucially, we find that our model of the multiple-item-template theory predicts human behavior much better than our model of the single-item-template theory; that is, modeling of behavioral data provides compelling evidence for multiple attentional templates that are simultaneously active.

scholarly journals Can you have multiple attentional templates? Large-scale replications of Van Moorselaar, Theeuwes and Olivers (2014) and Hollingworth and Beck (2016)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcella Frătescu ◽  
Dirk Van Moorselaar ◽  
Sebastiaan Mathôt
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Multiple State ◽  
Bias Attention ◽  
Larger Sample

AbstractStimuli that resemble the content of visual working memory (VWM) capture attention. However, theories disagree on how many VWM items can bias attention simultaneously. The multiple-state account posits a distinction between template and accessory VWM items, such that only a single template item biases attention. In contrast, homogenous-state accounts posit that all VWM items bias attention. Recently, Van Moorselaar et al. (2014) and Hollingworth and Beck (2016) tested these accounts, but obtained seemingly contradictory results. Van Moorselaar et al. (2014) found that a distractor in a visual-search task captured attention more when it matched the content of VWM (memory-driven capture). Crucially, memory-driven capture disappeared when more than one item was held in VWM, in line with the multiple-state account. In contrast, Hollingworth and Beck (2016) found memory-driven capture even when multiple items were kept in VWM, in line with a homogenous-state account. Considering these mixed results, we replicated both studies with a larger sample, and found that all key results are reliable. It is unclear to what extent these divergent results are due to paradigm differences between the studies. We conclude that is crucial to our understanding of VWM to determine the boundary conditions under which memory-driven capture occurs.

scholarly journals Target prevalence in a visual search task differentially modulates lure effects from visual working memory

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Beatriz Gil Gómez de Liaño ◽  
Trafton Drew ◽  
Daniel Rin ◽  
Jeremy Wolfe
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Target Prevalence

On the Temporal Relation of Top–Down and Bottom–Up Mechanisms during Guidance of Attention

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 640-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Wykowska ◽  
Anna Schubö
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Target Item ◽  
Search Display ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Focal Attention ◽  
Dynamic Interplay

Two mechanisms are said to be responsible for guiding focal attention in visual selection: bottom–up, saliency-driven capture and top–down control. These mechanisms were examined with a paradigm that combined a visual search task with postdisplay probe detection. Two SOAs between the search display and probe onsets were introduced to investigate how attention was allocated to particular items at different points in time. The dynamic interplay between bottom–up and top–down mechanisms was investigated with ERP methodology. ERPs locked to the search displays showed that top–down control needed time to develop. N2pc indicated allocation of attention to the target item and not to the irrelevant singleton. ERPs locked to probes revealed modulations in the P1 component reflecting top–down control of focal attention at the long SOA. Early bottom–up effects were observed in the error rates at the short SOA. Taken together, the present results show that the top–down mechanism takes time to guide focal attention to the relevant target item and that it is potent enough to limit bottom–up attentional capture.

scholarly journals Emotional metacontrol of attention: Top-down modulation of sensorimotor processes in a robotic visual search task

PLoS ONE ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. e0184960 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marwen Belkaid ◽  
Nicolas Cuperlier ◽  
Philippe Gaussier
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Sensorimotor Processes

scholarly journals Visual Search P300 Source Analysis Based On ERP-fMRI Integration

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiuzhu Zhang ◽  
Cimei Luo ◽  
Junjun Zhang ◽  
Zhenlan Jin ◽  
Ling Li
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Parietal Lobe ◽  
Source Location ◽  
Attention Control ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Source Analysis ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
P300 Component

ABSTRACTAttention control can be achieved in two ways, stimulus-driven bottom-up attention and goal-driven top-down attention. Different visual search tasks involve different attention control. The pop-out task requires more bottom-up attention, whereas the search task involves more top-down attention. P300 which is the positive potential generated by the brain in the latency of 300-600 ms after the stimulus, reflects the processing of cognitive process and is an important component in visual attention. The P300 source is not consistent in the previous researches, our aim therefore, is to study the source location of P300 component based on visual search attention process. Here we use pop-out and search paradigm to get the ERP data of 13 subjects and the fMRI data of 25 subjects, and analyze the source location of P300 using the ERP-fMRI integration technology with high temporal resolution and high spatial resolution. The target differs from the distractor in color and orientation in the pop-out task, whereas the target and the distractor have different orientation and the same color in the search task. ERP results indicate that pop-out induces larger P300 concentrated in the parietal lobe, whereas search induced P300 is more distributed in the frontal lobe. Further ERP and fMRI integration analyses reveal that the left angular gyrus, right postcentral gyrus of parietal lobe and the left superior frontal gyrus (medial orbital) are the source of P300. Our study suggests the contribution of the frontal and parietal lobes to the P300 component.

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