The relationship between visual attention and visual working memory encoding: A dissociation between covert and overt orienting.

ABSTRACT: There is substantial debate over whether visual working memory (VWM) and visual attention constitute a single system for the selection of task-relevant perceptual information or whether they are distinct systems that can be dissociated when their representational demands diverge. In the present study, we focused on the relationship between visual attention and the encoding of objects into VWM. Participants performed a color change-detection task. During the retention interval, a secondary object, irrelevant to the memory task, was presented. Participants were instructed either to execute an overt shift of gaze to this object (Experiments 1-3) or to attend it covertly (Experiments 4 and 5). Our goal was to determine whether these overt and covert shifts of attention disrupted the informatio

SUBMITTER: Tas AC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4977214 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature