Spatial attention and working memory are popularly thought to be tightly coupled. Yet, distinct neural activity tracks attentional breadth and WM load.

In a new paper @jocn.bsky.social, we show that pupil size independently tracks breadth and load.

doi.org/10.1162/JOCN...

Now published in Attention, Perception & Psychophysics @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social

Open Access link: doi.org/10.3758/s134...

Long overdue! Didn't promote this one amid twitter/X chaos. But nearing the end of my PhD, I want to do this project justice and post it here:

Is visual working memory used differently when errors are penalized?

Out already 1+ year ago in JEP:LMC: research-portal.uu.nl/ws/files/258...
🧵 (1/3)

Good morning #VSS2025, if you care for a chat about the role of attention in binding object features (during perceptual encoding and memory maintenance), drop by my poster now (8:30-12:30) in the pavilion (422). Hope to see you there!

If you are at #VSS2025, come to @chrispaffen.bsky.social talk (room 2 at 3PM), where he discusses how binocular conflict in real-world vision may be resolved in an adaptive manner (favoring either nasal or temporal hemi-fields) to optimally perceive partially occluded objects of interest.

Attending @vssmtg.bsky.social? Come check out my talk on EEG decoding of preparatory overt and covert attention!

Tomorrow in the Attention: Neural Mechanisms session at 17:15. You can check out the preprint in the meantime:

We previously showed that affordable eye movements are preferred over costly ones. What happens when salience comes into play?

In our new paper, we show that even when salience attracts gaze, costs remain a driver of saccade selection.

OA paper here:
doi.org/10.3758/s134...

About time our latest project about time got out!

How do self-paced encoding and retention relate to performance in (working) memory-guided actions?

Find out now in Memory and Cognition: doi.org/10.3758/s134...
(or check the short version below)🧵

Preparing overt eye movements and directing covert attention are neurally coupled. Yet, this coupling breaks down at the single-cell level. What about populations of neurons?

We show: EEG decoding dissociates preparatory overt from covert attention at the population level:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Thrilled to share that, as of May 1st, I have started as a postdoc at The University of Manchester!

I will investigate looked-but-failed-to-see (LBFTS) errors in visual search, under the expert guidance of Johan Hulleman and Jeremy Wolfe. Watch this space!

We show that eye-movements are selected based on effort minimization - finally final in @elife.bsky.social
eLife's digest:
elifesciences.org/digests/9776...
& the 'convincing & important' paper:
elifesciences.org/articles/97760

I consider this my coolest ever project!

#VisionScience #Neuroscience

Last Friday the irreplaceable @luzixu.bsky.social successfully defended her PhD (at @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social). This has been an incredibly productive 3+ years, and we are sad to see her leave, but are very proud of her accomplishments (with @attentionlab.bsky.social, @chrispaffen.bsky.social)!