Naveh-Benjamin Moshe, Kilb Angela, Fisher Tyler
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia 65211, USA.
Mem Cognit. 2006 Jan;34(1):90-101. doi: 10.3758/bf03193389.
Several studies have demonstrated that divided attention at encoding significantly reduces memory performance, whereas divided attention at retrieval affects memory performance only minimally. However, the possibility exists that retrieval processes have shown such resilience because the concurrent tasks used have often not been very demanding. To assess this possibility, we used independent manipulations of the concurrent task during either encoding or retrieval that included stimulus-response compatibility and participant- versus experimenter-controlled pace. In addition, we manipulated the distribution of practice that the participants received with the primary and the concurrent tasks. The results replicated and extended those recently reported by Rohrer and Pashler (2003), indicating that although memory performance is negatively affected by divided attention at retrieval, especially with noncompatible stimulus-response mapping in the concurrent task, this effect was much smaller than that at encoding, in line with the asymmetry notion. Furthermore, experimenter versus participant control of the concurrent task had no effect on memory retrieval. Finally, under conditions of equal practice with both the memory and the concurrent tasks, memory retrieval was affected only to a small degree. In contrast to encoding processes, the processes involved in retrieval accuracy appear, in many cases, to be less interrupted by divided attention, although this protection requires substantial resources.
多项研究表明，编码时的分散注意力会显著降低记忆表现，而检索时的分散注意力对记忆表现的影响则微乎其微。然而，检索过程表现出如此强的恢复力，可能是因为所使用的并发任务通常要求不高。为了评估这种可能性，我们在编码或检索过程中对并发任务进行了独立操作，包括刺激-反应兼容性以及参与者与实验者控制的节奏。此外，我们还对参与者在主要任务和并发任务上的练习分配进行了操作。结果重复并扩展了罗勒和帕什勒（2003年）最近报道的内容，表明尽管检索时的分散注意力会对记忆表现产生负面影响，尤其是在并发任务中刺激-反应映射不兼容的情况下，但这种影响远小于编码时的影响，这与不对称概念相符。此外，实验者与参与者对并发任务的控制对记忆检索没有影响。最后，在记忆任务和并发任务练习量相等的情况下，记忆检索仅受到很小程度的影响。与编码过程不同，检索准确性所涉及的过程在许多情况下似乎较少受到分散注意力的干扰，尽管这种保护需要大量资源。
