Abstract
Representations in focus of attention (FOA) of working memory (WM) have the highest activation state and processing privilege. There are two distinct ways for representations entering FOA: Involuntary and voluntary processes. While extensive WM studies had investigated the two processes, the two processes have been largely examined separately. There are situations that the two processes co-exist but have distinct targets in a task, resulting in FOA competition between the two processes. It remains unclear the underlying competition mechanism. We examined this issue by using a color singleton cue in memory array to evoke an involuntary process and a retro-cue in the WM maintenance phase to initiate a voluntary process. We investigated whether and how the singleton benefit was modulated by the retro-cue when they had distinct targets. In three experiments, we consistently found that the item with a stronger cue enters FOA: Singleton benefit is erased by a strong retro-cue but not a weak retro-cue. These results together suggest that involuntary and voluntary processes compete for a limited capacity of FOA, and the stronger process will win the competition in guiding an item into FOA.