Prioritizing feature bindings across space and modality in working memory

A growing body of evidence shows that selective attention can be strategically directed to prioritize items of higher ‘value’ in working memory. This work has typically been limited to tests of feature binding using simple ‘unitized’ colored shapes as memoranda. The current study explored whether value-directed prioritization can be effectively applied when feature pairings of color and shape are separated out, either into different spatial locations (Experiment 1) or across visual and auditory presentation modalities (Experiments 2a and 2b). Experiment 1 found an overall cost to working memory performance when features were spatially separated, relative to a unitized condition, while Experiments 2a and 2b found no such cost for cross-modal feature separation. Across these experiments, there was no evidence for interaction between binding condition and prioritization; participants were equally able to derive performance benefits from prioritizing high value items in the sequence, regardless of whether features were encountered as part of the same unitized object or separated in space or modality. The findings have implications for the relationship between working memory and attention, and suggest that value-directed prioritization can be effectively applied across different types of material.