The Effects Of Executive Attention And Perceptual Attention On Visual Working Memory Representations

Visual working memory can encode and store information.The contents of visual working memory can guide attentional selection.The perceptual attention is stimuli-based,and the executive attention occupies the resources of the central execution system.Besides,the perceptual attention and executive attention affect the visual working memory.However,no clear evidence of different forms of attention impact on visual representations during visual working memory.This study designed four experiments to further explore the role of executive attention and perceptual attention in visual working memory.In Experiment 1,using four dual-feature objects,the articulatory suppression and backward counting task to manipulate execution attention,and the distractor was presented with the memory array sequentially to manipulate perceptual attention.In Experiment 2 and 3,using two dual-feature objects,the distractor was presented with the memory array simultaneously or sequentially.In Experiment 4,with two dual-feature objects,using event related potentials(ERP),the verbal memory and mathematics task to manipulate execution attention,and the distractor was presented with the memory array sequentially to manipulate perceptual attention.Experiment 1-4 focused on how the executive attention and perceptual attention influence on visual working memory.In conclusion,with four dual-feature objects,the recall accuracy reduces when the distractor is presented with targets sequentially,whether occupying the executive attention or perceptual attention.With two dual-feature objects,the executive attention reduces the recall accuracy and the perceptual attention does not,whether the distractor is presented with targets simultaneously or sequentially.Besides,with two dual-feature objects,when the distractor is presented with targets sequentially,the less executive attention is occupied,the less attention resources are captured by the distractor.