Overlapping mechanisms of attention and spatial working memory

Spatial selective attention and spatial working memory have largely been st udied in isolation. Studies of spatial attention have provided clear eviden ce that observers can bias visual processing towards specific locations, en abling faster and better processing of information at those locations than at unattended locations. We present evidence supporting the view that this process of visual selection is a key component of rehearsal in spatial work ing memory. Thus, although working memory has sometimes been depicted as a storage system that emerges 'downstream' of early sensory processing, curre nt evidence suggests that spatial rehearsal recruits top-down processes tha t modulate the earliest stages of visual analysis.