Over the last decade, researchers have explored the influence of visual working-memory (WM) load on selective attention in general, by focusing on the modulation of visual WM load on distractor processing in perception. However, there were three distinct hypotheses (perceptual-load hypothesis, resolution hypothesis, and domain-specific hypothesis) with different predictions. While the perceptual-load hypothesis suggests that visual WM capacity load serves as a type of perceptual load, the latter two hypotheses consider visual WM capacity load acting as a type of central executive load, with a constraint that the domain-specific hypothesis claimed that only a content overlap existed between WM load and the perceptual task. By adding a flanker task into the maintenance phase of visual WM, here we attempted to understand the influence of visual WM load on distractor processing. We systematically manipulated the parameters of the task setting between WM and flanker tasks (Experiments 1–4), the perceptual load of flanker task (Experiment 5), the settings of the flanker stimuli and the WM load (Experiment 6), and the content overlap between WM task and flanker task and the exposure time of flanker task (Experiments 7, 8, and 9). However, in 11 out of 12 sub-experiments we consistently found that the visual WM load did not modulate the distractor processing. The implications of these findings are discussed.

在过去的十年中，研究人员通过关注视觉WM负载对知觉中干扰物处理的调节，探索了视觉工作记忆（WM）负载总体上对选择性注意的影响。但是，存在三个具有不同预测的不同假设（感知负载假设，解决方案假设和领域特定假设）。尽管感知负载假设表明视觉WM容量负载是一种感知负载，但后两个假设将视觉WM容量负载视为中央执行负载的一种类型，但有一个约束条件，即特定于领域的假设要求仅WM负载和感知任务之间存在内容重叠。通过将侧卫任务添加到可视WM的维护阶段，在这里，我们试图了解视觉WM负载对牵引器处理的影响。我们系统地操纵了WM和侧翼任务之间的任务设置参数（实验1-4），侧翼任务的感知负载（实验5），侧翼刺激和WM负载的设置（实验6）以及内容WM任务和侧翼任务之间的重叠以及侧翼任务的暴露时间（实验7、8和9）。但是，在12个子实验中的11个中，我们一致地发现，视觉WM负载不会调节分散器的处理。讨论了这些发现的含义。侧翼刺激的设置和WM负载（实验6），WM任务和侧翼任务的内容以及侧翼任务的暴露时间重叠（实验7、8和9）。但是，在12个子实验中的11个中，我们一致地发现，视觉WM负载不会调节分散器的处理。讨论了这些发现的含义。侧翼刺激的设置和WM负载（实验6），WM任务和侧翼任务的内容以及侧翼任务的暴露时间重叠（实验7、8和9）。但是，在12个子实验中的11个中，我们一致地发现，视觉WM负载不会调节分散器的处理。讨论了这些发现的含义。