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Abstract:
Abstract: Theories of attention have proposed that visual
working memory plays an important role in visual search tasks. The
present study examines the involvement of visual working memory in
search using a dual-task paradigm, in which participants performed
a visual search task either in isolation or while maintaining 2 or
4 objects in visual working memory. The presence of a working
memory load was found to add a constant delay to the visual search
reaction times, irrespective of the number of items in the visual
search array or the similarity of the memory items to the objects
in the search arrays. That is, there was no change in the slope of
the function relating reaction time to the number of items in the
search array, indicating that the search process itself was not
slowed by the memory load. Moreover, the search task did not
substantially impair the maintenance of information in visual
working memory. These results suggest that visual search requires
minimal visual working memory resources. These experiments provide
evidence against several theories that propose a close link between
attention and working memory.
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