Object feature reinstatement into working-memory? Separating the direct and indirect effects of long-term memory on attentional selection

During visual search, observers adopt an attentional template that guides attention towards stimuli with features that match the search-for object. This template can be bolstered by prior knowledge, even when that knowledge is irrelevant. Here, we examined how such prior knowledge in long-term memory (LTM) biases visual search both directly from a LTM-based template, and indirectly after being reinstated into a visual working memory (VWM) template. Across experiments, participants used LTM to learn a set of object images with specific colours, and then searched for the objects in any colour amongst new or old distractors. We found that for VWM-based templates, search was significantly affected by the previously learned colour association. In contrast, when search is guided directly by LTM, the effects on search time are likely related to a post-perceptual process. Altogether, this work clarifies the interactive roles of VWM and LTM in controlling attentional capture during visual search.