Focused information: Interactions between the visual focus, the attentional focus and the focus within visual-spatial working memory

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In human information processing one is confronted with large amounts of information but only limited processing capacities. Therefore, principles developed to select and prioritize processing of subsets of information. In the visual system the eyes (visual focus) and visual attention (attentional focus) are two such important selection tools. They select and prioritize information processing from the outside world. We compare these mechanisms with a focus, supposed to be directed to the inside: A focus selecting representations from working memory (memory focus). Working memory models assume that this focus is necessary to encode, keep available and retrieve information. We experimentally compare the interaction of these three foci. We concentrate on visual-spatial working memory and use eye movement recordings to control the visual and the attentional focus. Part 1 of our proposal dissociates the effects of the visual focus and the attentional focus in the encoding phase. It has long been known that fixation target and attentional target can be dissociated (e.g., overt and covert attention). An already published study (Lange & Engbert, 2013) demonstrated that encoding of verbal information is rather overt, but spatial encoding utilizes rather covert attention. We first investigate eye movement control for combined information (verbal/visual and spatial), assuming that the visual focus will support encoding of feature integration, but at the same time saccadic activity might impair the representation of spatial features. In a second step we differentiate between effects of material (verbal/visual) and task difficulty. Part 2 of our proposal concentrates on the role of the three foci within the retention interval. Here, specific representations have to be activated for later recognition (memory focus), whereas saccades have concurrently to be generated to object targets (visual focus and attentional focus). The retro-cue paradigm allows us to disentangle these processes and the contributions of the different foci. If all three foci are directed to the same object, memory performance should benefit, if the foci are directed to different objects, memory interference should occur. We will distinguish between interference due to memory degradation and confusion of representations being selected by different foci. Our goal is to integrate the three foci in a model of visual-spatial working memory.