When attending to visual objects with particular features, neural processing is typically biased toward those features. Previous work has suggested that maintaining such feature-based attentional sets may involve the same neural resources as visual working memory. If so, the extent to which feature-based attention influences stimulus processing should be related to individuals' working memory capacity. Here we used electroencephalography (EEG) to record brain activity in 60 human observers while they monitored stimulus streams for targets of a specific color. Distractors presented at irrelevant locations evoked strong electrophysiological markers of attentional signal enhancement (the N2pc and P_D components) despite producing little or no behavioral interference. Critically, there was no relationship between individual differences in the magnitude of these feature-based biases on distractor processing and individual differences in working memory capacity as measured using three separate working memory tasks. Bayes factor analyses indicated substantial evidence in support of the null hypothesis of no relationship between working memory capacity and the effects of feature-based attention on distractor processing. We consider three potential explanations for these findings. One is that working memory and feature-based attention draw upon distinct neural resources, contrary to previous claims. A second is that working memory is only related to feature-based attention when the attentional template has recently changed. A third is that feature-based attention tasks of the kind employed in the current study recruit just one of several subcomponents of working memory, and so are not invariably correlated with an individual's overall working memory capacity.

当关注具有特定特征的视觉对象时，神经处理通常偏向那些特征。先前的工作表明，维护此类基于特征的注意力集可能涉及与视觉工作记忆相同的神经资源。如果是这样，基于特征的注意力影响刺激过程的程度应与个人的工作记忆能力有关。在这里，我们使用脑电图（EEG）来记录60位人类观察者的大脑活动，同时他们监视刺激流中特定颜色的目标。在不相关位置出现的干扰物引起注意信号增强的强大电生理指标（N2pc和P _D组件），尽管几乎没有行为干扰。至关重要的是，分心器处理上这些基于特征的偏差的大小上的个体差异与使用三个单独的工作记忆任务测得的工作记忆容量的个体差异之间没有关系。贝叶斯因子分析表明大量证据支持零假设，即工作记忆能力与分心器处理中基于特征的注意之间没有关系。对于这些发现，我们考虑三种可能的解释。一个是工作记忆和基于特征的注意力吸引了独特的神经资源，这与先前的主张相反。第二点是，当注意模板最近发生更改时，工作记忆仅与基于特征的注意有关。