Author: Becker, D. Vaughn

Source: Memory, Volume 17, Number 6, August 2009 , pp. 687-694(8)

Publisher: Psychology Press, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Abstract:

Two experiments are reported in which participants were instructed to attend to one of two overlapping figures and report how distinctive it was (Experiment 1), or how angular it was or what it resembled (Experiment 2). Tests of recognition memory indicated that recognition of the unattended figures was below chance, consistent with the conclusion that an implicit memory of the unattended figures and an “action tag” to not respond to the figures combine at recognition to suppress positive identification. Furthermore, participants that scored high on an index of working memory ability showed worse memory for the unattended shapes, suggesting that the ability to control attention not only enhances memory for attended items, but also leads to greater suppression of unattended distractors.

Keywords: Implicit memory; Attention; Working memory; Recognition; Form perception

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09658210903045095

Affiliations: 1: Arizona State University at the Polytechnic Campus, Mesa, AZ, USA

Publication date: 2009-08-01

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