Recently, working memory (WM) has been conceptualized as a limited resource, distributed flexibly and strategically between an unlimited number of representations. In addition to improving the precision of representations in WM, the allocation of resources may also shape how these representations act as attentional templates to guide visual search. Here, we reviewed recent evidence in favor of this assumption and proposed three main principles that govern the relationship between WM resources and template-guided visual search. First, the allocation of resources to an attentional template has an effect on visual search, as it may improve the guidance of visual attention, facilitate target recognition, and/or protect the attentional template against interference. Second, the allocation of the largest amount of resources to a representation in WM is not sufficient to give this representation the status of attentional template and thus, the ability to guide visual search. Third, the representation obtaining the status of attentional template, whether at encoding or during maintenance, receives an amount of WM resources proportional to its relevance for visual search. Thus defined, the resource hypothesis of visual search constitutes a parsimonious and powerful framework, which provides new perspectives on previous debates and complements existing models of template-guided visual search.

最近，工作记忆 (WM) 被概念化为一种有限的资源，在无限数量的表征之间灵活且有策略地分布。除了提高 WM 中表示的精确度外，资源分配还可能影响这些表示如何充当注意力模板来指导视觉搜索。在这里，我们回顾了最近支持这一假设的证据，并提出了三个主要原则来管理 WM 资源和模板引导视觉搜索之间的关系。首先，将资源分配给注意模板对视觉搜索有影响，因为它可以改善视觉注意的引导，促进目标识别，和/或保护注意模板免受干扰。第二，将最大量的资源分配给 WM 中的表示不足以使该表示具有注意模板的状态，从而无法指导视觉搜索。第三，无论是在编码还是在维护期间，获得注意模板状态的表示都会收到与其视觉搜索相关性成比例的 WM 资源量。如此定义，视觉搜索的资源假设构成了一个简洁而强大的框架，它为以前的辩论提供了新的视角，并补充了模板引导视觉搜索的现有模型。无论是在编码还是在维护期间，接收与其视觉搜索相关性成比例的 WM 资源量。如此定义，视觉搜索的资源假设构成了一个简洁而强大的框架，它为以前的辩论提供了新的视角，并补充了模板引导视觉搜索的现有模型。无论是在编码还是在维护期间，接收与其视觉搜索相关性成比例的 WM 资源量。如此定义，视觉搜索的资源假设构成了一个简洁而强大的框架，它为以前的辩论提供了新的视角，并补充了模板引导视觉搜索的现有模型。