Fast Capture, Slow Shift: How Working Memory Guides Perception

The top-down influence of working memory (WM) can manifest as attentional capture and a "tinted lens" that alters perceptual appearance. Yet it remains unclear whether these effects arise from a common mechanism or reflect functionally and mechanistically distinct processes. Across two experiments, we embedded a perceptual estimation task during WM maintenance. Hierarchical Bayesian mixture modeling revealed robust bidirectional attraction between memory and perception. More importantly, time-resolved analyses of mouse trajectories showed that attentional capture emerged as a fast, transient deviation linked to movement initiation, whereas perceptual bias reflected a slower, sustained shift shaping the final perceptual judgment. Notably, the prospective influence of WM on perception engaged both effects, whereas the retrospective influence of perception on WM involved only the sustained shift. These findings indicate that WM deploys distinct top-down signals that operate over different timescales to dynamically shape our perceptual experience.