Abstract
Previous research has shown that visual working memory (VWM) representations can be prioritized if they are associated with the location of a motor movement (e.g., Heuer et al., 2017): Change detection performance improves if the to-be-tested item’s location matches with an action location, compared to when the action location matches one of the non-targets. In this study, we tested whether motor action leads to enhancement of the to-be-tested item, inhibition of non-targets, or a combination of these processes. We instructed participants to remember 2(SS2), 4(SS4), or 5 colors (SS5). During the retention interval, a cue pointed to the location of a to-be-tested item (action-relevant), one of the non-targets (memory-relevant), or where no item was presented (irrelevant). In different blocks, participants executed a pointing movement toward the cued location or ignored the cue. At the end of each trial, participants reported the target color on a color wheel. We analyzed both accuracy and precision of the color reports. Replicating previous studies, executing a movement led to overall decreased accuracy compared to no-movement. Although previous studies found increased accuracy on action-relevant trials only at SS4, we found this effect both at SS2 and SS4. Action-relevant conditions led to significantly more accurate and precise color reports compared to memory-relevant and irrelevant conditions. In contrast to previous studies, making a motor movement in action-relevant trials decreased accuracy but had no effect on precision. Importantly, when participants executed a movement, responses were more precise in action-relevant than irrelevant trials, but memory-relevant trials did not differ from either condition, suggesting that executing a motor movement led to more precise and accurate responses but there was no cost of making a movement to a non-target location. Thus, we found no evidence that action inhibited VWM representations at non-target locations, instead it enhanced representations for target locations.