Multiple representations in visual working memory can simultaneously guide attention

Whether multiple representations in visual working memory (VWM) can simultaneously guide attention is controversial. The multiple-item-template (MIT) hypothesis holds that multiple VWM representations can be active to guide visual attention simultaneously, whereas the single-item-template (SIT) hypothesis argues that only one VWM representation can interact with attention at a time. Recent study form (Fan et al., Acta Psychologica 192:126–137, 2019) provided strong evidence on MIT through the method of comparing the patterns of guidance effects in different experimental conditions. In the present study, we aimed to reexamine SIT and MIT by sharing a new condition wherein two search distractors match the single memory representation, using the original Fan et al. tilted-line search task. The guidance effect when two colored-shapes were held in VWM and both were present as distractors in the search array were observed and equal to that when the single colored-shape in VWM matched two of the distractors, which is consistent with the hypothesis of MIT. Moreover, the comparison on the degree of linear fitting between the actual data and two hypothesized models according to SIT and MIT showed that the Model of MIT fits the data best with a higher R2 of 0.125.