# Coarse matching was sufficient to capture attention by working memory representations unless matching features with the target

## TL;DR

This study shows that working memory can capture attention even with rough matches, but only if the match isn't the actual target.

## Contribution

It reveals that task relevance modulates the role of perceptual similarity in attentional capture by working memory.

## Key findings

- Coarse matching between working memory and distractors consistently caused attentional capture.
- High similarity between working memory and the target led to stronger attentional capture effects.
- Task relevance increases perceptual sensitivity to visual input.

## Abstract

In most theoretical frameworks, the effectiveness of attentional selection relies significantly on the perceptual similarity between the target template and visual input. Nevertheless, ambiguity exists surrounding whether attentional capture triggered by irrelevant representations in Working Memory (WM) is influenced by the perceptual similarity levels of features between WM content and its matching distractors.

We designed a hybrid WM and visual search task, varying such perceptual similarity of colors across three levels: exact, high-similar, and low-similar matching. To quantify the extent of the capture effect, we compared these conditions against a neutral baseline (i.e., completely different color) using eye movement and behavioral data in two experiments.

We consistently observed robust attentional capture effects across two experiments, evident in both eye movement indices and manual reaction times. In Experiment 1, where WM representations solely matched features to visual search distractors (task-irrelevant scenario), we found that changes in perceptual similarity did not influence attentional capture. Conversely, in Experiment 2, where WM representations had the potential to match the visual search target (task-relevant scenario), we observed a significantly more robust attentional capture effect for high-similar matching compared to low-similar matching conditions.

These findings imply that coarse matching between distractors and WM contents is sufficient to capture attention, unless the matching features potentially correspond to the visual target. Furthermore, task relevance sharpens perceptual sensitivity to visual input, highlighting distinct mechanisms underlying attentional capture by irrelevant representations and target templates within WM.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40359-025-02522-5.