Guiding Effect Of Visual Working Memory On Visual Attention Of Emotional Faces

Visual working memory and visual attention are the focus of working memory model and attention theory research respectively.When the stimulus in the field of view matches the object representation in working memory,the stimulus will get attention resources to be processed first.Pay attention to capture.The biased competition model believes that there are a large number of stimuli in the individual's vision.Attention is a cognitive system with limited resources.The stimulus presented in the vision will compete for limited cognitive resources to obtain attention in a mutually inhibiting manner.Working memory plays an important role in solving the limited attention resources of competition among multiple objects in the field of view.The representations being maintained in the individual's current working memory will enhance the matching in the visual cortex in a top-down manner.The degree of activation of perceptual representation,so that objects in the field of view that match the content of working memory gain a competitive advantage and eventually gain attentional bias.This study is based on the theory of biased competition,using a dual-task paradigm that combines memory tasks and visual attention tasks,with high school students as subjects,geometric figures as memory materials,and sketchy emotional faces as visual attention materials,and emotional faces The identification of response time is an indicator to explore the guiding role of visual working memory content on emotional attention to emotional faces.(1)This experiment focuses on three issues: first,visual working memory automatically guides the attention of emotional faces(happy faces and angry faces);second,the angry faces in visual attention materials have processing advantages,that is,the advantages of angry faces The effect exists;third,the working memory content can regulate the angry face advantage effect,and under the matching conditions(the memory item and the emotional face have the same spatial position),the angry face advantage effect disappears.This research mainly includes two parts of experiments.Experiment 1 mainly explores the capture effect of working memory content on visual attention.The purpose of experiment 2 is to exclude the effect of priming effect on visual attention capture,and prove that the capture of visual attention in experiment 1 is due to working memory.Content causes rather than priming effects.The results show that:(1)Working memory has a guiding effect on the visual attention of emotional faces.This effect is automatic and top-down.Compared with neutral conditions,the response time of visual attention capture under matching conditions is faster than the response time of attention capture under interference conditions.(2)In visual attention,the reaction of angry face discrimination is significantly faster than that of happy face discrimination.The angry face has a processing advantage,that is,the advantage effect of the angry face exists.The advantages of angry faces are regulated by working memory.Under the conditions of matching,the advantages of angry faces may disappear.(3)The advantages of angry faces are regulated by working memory.Under the conditions of matching,the advantages of angry faces may disappear.(4)In the case of the priming effect,there is no guiding effect on the visual attention of emotional faces.The attention capture effect on emotional faces in Experiment 1 is caused by the content of working memory.In summary,this study shows that there are interactions between top-down representations of working memory and bottom-up attention processing advantages of angry faces.Working memory content can guide the visual attention capture of emotional faces,but cannot eliminate the advantages of angry faces.,Indicating that the advantages of angry faces are automatic and difficult to change.In the identification of emotional faces,the response to the processing of angry faces is significantly faster than that of happy faces,and the overall advantage of angry faces exists.The content of working memory can adjust the dominant effect of angry faces.Under the matching conditions(the memory item and the emotional face have the same spatial position),the dominant effect of angry faces disappears.This study further expands the scope of the biased competition theory model.Working memory not only guides the attention of simple stimuli,but also guides the attention of complex emotional faces.