Abstract
Visual short-term memory allows information within a visual scene to be encoded as an internal representation and actively maintained over time. Because this memory system is capacity limited, however, only a subset of the objects within a visual scene can be encoded in this way. In the present research, we investigated whether the objects that are selected for memory are determined solely volitionally, or whether stimulus-driven attentional capture can bias this selection. Subjects were presented an array of visual objects and asked to remember a subset of them (i.e., their volitional goal). In addition, an irrelevant distractor was used to randomly cue locations within this array (i.e., a stimulus-driven signal). Memory performance was biased by the task-irrelevant distractor, suggesting that attentional capture does guide the contents of visual short-term memory. This finding is discussed within the context of the contingency of attentional capture on top-down control settings, and in terms of the time course of the interaction between top-down volitional attention and bottom-up attentional capture.
Funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.