Prioritized Verbal Working Memory Content Biases Ongoing Action

Working memory (WM) holds information temporarily in mind, imparting the ability to guide behavior based on internal goals rather than external stimuli. However. humans often maintain WM content for a future task while performing more immediate actions. Consequently, transient WM representations may inadvertently influence ongoing (but unrelated) motor behavior. Mere, we tested the impact of WM on adult human action execution and examined how the attentional or "activation" state of WM content modulates that impact. In 3 dual-task experiments, verbal WM for directional words influenced the trajectory and speed of hand movements performed during WM maintenance. This movement bias was also modulated by the attentional state of the WM content. Prioritized WM content strongly influenced actions during WM maintenance, while de-prioritized WM content was less influential. In summary, WM can unintentionally shape ongoing motor behavior. but the behavioral relevance of WM content determines the degree of influence on motor output.