The efficiency of human visual information processing is supported by numerous attentional resources. These resources ensure that behaviourally relevant information within visual scenes is selected for detailed processing, while behaviourally irrelevant information is ignored. One of these attentional resources—reflexive visuospatial attention—operates by prioritising locations in visual space in response to the appearance of salient stimuli. The purpose of the present dissertation was to examine how this type of attention contributes to the efficiency of visual processing by asking: How is processing altered for information presented at the location of attention? To develop some initial evidence of the stage of processing affected by reflexive visuospatial attention, Chapters 1 to 6 assessed whether this attentional resource is related to four other stimulus-driven effects that are each associated with a specific stage of visual processing: identity processing, object filtering, visual working memory (VWM), and response generation. Based on the observation that only the stimulus-driven effects on VWM are related to reflexive visuospatial attention (i.e., only those effects were contingent on attentional control settings), a VWM model of reflexive visuospatial attention was proposed in Chapter 7, and tested in Chapters 8 to 11. According to this model, reflexive visuospatial attention alters visual processing by triggering VWM to update. Thus, the effect of reflexive visuospatial attention is to speed the encoding of attended information into VWM. As a result, this information is more likely than unattended information to bias our behaviour, in particular those behaviours that depend on VWM. Further, by biasing VWM, reflexive visuospatial attention can interact with other attentional resources that have also been associated with VWM. In this way, these attentional resources can coordinate in optimising the process of selection, thus, contributing to the efficiency of the human visual system.

The efficiency of human visual information processing is supported by numerous attentional resources. These resources ensure that behaviourally relevant information within visual scenes is selected for detailed processing, while behaviourally irrelevant information is ignored. One of these attentional resources—reflexive visuospatial attention—operates by prioritising locations in visual space in response to the appearance of salient stimuli. The purpose of the present dissertation was to examine how this type of attention contributes to the efficiency of visual processing by asking: How is processing altered for information presented at the location of attention? To develop some initial evidence of the stage of processing affected by reflexive visuospatial attention, Chapters 1 to 6 assessed whether this attentional resource is related to four other stimulus-driven effects that are each associated with a specific stage of visual processing: identity processing, object filtering, visual working memory (VWM), and response generation. Based on the observation that only the stimulus-driven effects on VWM are related to reflexive visuospatial attention (i.e., only those effects were contingent on attentional control settings), a VWM model of reflexive visuospatial attention was proposed in Chapter 7, and tested in Chapters 8 to 11. According to this model, reflexive visuospatial attention alters visual processing by triggering VWM to update. Thus, the effect of reflexive visuospatial attention is to speed the encoding of attended information into VWM. As a result, this information is more likely than unattended information to bias our behaviour, in particular those behaviours that depend on VWM. Further, by biasing VWM, reflexive visuospatial attention can interact with other attentional resources that have also been associated with VWM. In this way, these attentional resources can coordinate in optimising the process of selection, thus, contributing to the efficiency of the human visual system.