Table 2.

Open questions

Topic	Question
Allocation and reallocation of WM resources toward attentional templates and search-unrelated representations	To what extent do the allocation and reallocation of resources depend on automatic and controlled processes for attentional templates? Particularly, does it involve an automatic allocation, followed by a controlled reallocation as suggested by Williams et al. (2020)? Moreover, can the reallocation of WM resources only occur when it is goal-relevant? And, is the reallocation of WM resources more flexible between multiple attentional templates than between an attentional template and a search-unrelated representation?
Functions of WM resources in visual search	Under which circumstances does the allocation of WM resources improve attentional guidance, facilitate target recognition, or both?
Protection hypothesis	What are the conditions in which protection from interference is required for attentional templates? Does it only occur with multiple attentional templates? What are the types of interference (e.g., proactive, retroactive) that interact with the allocation of WM resources? Are there differential effects for template-guided visual search? Do individual differences in WM capacity modulate interference in template-guided visual search as suggested by Kane et al. (2001)?
Electrophysiological measures	Are the electrophysiological measures of the allocation of WM resources more reliable than recall precision? For instance, when intervening stimuli interfere during maintenance or contaminate the recall?