Guidance of Attention by Working Memory Is a Matter of Representational Fidelity

Items that are held in visual working memory can guide attention toward matching features in the environment. Predominant theories propose that to guide attention, a memory item must be internally prioritized and given a special template status, which builds on the assumption that there are qualitatively distinct states in working memory. Here, we propose that no distinct states in working memory are necessary to explain why some items guide attention and others do not. Instead, we propose variations in attentional guidance arise because individual memories naturally vary in their representational fidelity, and only highly accurate memories automatically guide attention. Across a series of experiments and a simulation we show that (a) items in working memory vary naturally in representational fidelity; (b) attention is guided by all well-represented items, though frequently only one item is represented well enough to guide; and (c) no special working memory state for prioritized items is necessary to explain guidance. These findings challenge current models of attentional guidance and working memory and instead support a simpler account for how working memory and attention interact: Only the representational fidelity of memories, which varies naturally between items, determines whether and how strongly a memory representation guides attention. Public Significance Statement When you are holding an item in mind (say, your red mug), your visual attention is automatically guided toward red information in the environment. However, this does not always occur and seems to happen less often when you are holding in mind multiple pieces of information (say, your red mug and your blue coaster). This study demonstrates that the fidelity of a working memory representation alone may determine how strongly that item will interact with attention. Because memories vary randomly in fidelity and tend to be lower fidelity when holding more items in mind, this can explain why attention is sometimes, but not always, guided by items we hold in mind.