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Holding Back the Past: Controlling When LTM Guides Attention

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 7, 3:00 – 5:00 pm, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballrooms

Jessica Kespe¹ (jkespe@uoguelph.ca), Marielle Noack¹, Rory Lippert¹, Naseem Al-Aidroos¹; ¹University of Guelph

Objects stored in visual working memory (VWM) guide attention toward matching features in the environment. Notably, an object’s features do not need to be seen to influence attention–features previously associated with that object in long-term memory (LTM) can be reinstated into VWM and bias attention, even when task-irrelevant. But are remembered features always reinstated, or is LTM reinstatement under the observer’s control? To examine this question, we first tested whether reinstatement depends on task demands. After memorizing-coloured objects, participants either completed a VWM-based speeded object-search task, or non-speeded object-recognition task, for those object’s shapes. Some trials alternatively ended with a diamond search, allowing an independent measure of reinstatement. We found that reinstated object colours only biased attention in the diamond search when objects were remembered for speeded search, not non-speeded recognition, indicating that reinstatement depends on task demands. We next examined temporal control over reinstatement. First, to establish when reinstatement emerges, we varied object-shape viewing duration and pre-search delay in the speeded-search task, finding reinstatement after 100 ms of viewing and 50 ms of maintenance. Using these timings, we had participants complete the diamond search and object search on every trial, in that order. Although object shapes were maintained in VWM for the whole trial, reinstated colours only biased attention at object search, suggesting reinstatement was delayed until after the diamond search. Together, these studies demonstrate that reinstatement can occur rapidly, and is flexibly modulated by task demands and timing, which determine when task-irrelevant features guide attention.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Other