Cognitive and Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, RWTH Aachen University, Jaegerstrasse 17/19, 52066, Aachen, Germany.
Mem Cognit. 2024 Aug;52(6):1246-1262. doi: 10.3758/s13421-024-01539-2. Epub 2024 Mar 4.
Dual-tasks at the memory encoding stage have been shown to decrease recall performance and impair concurrent task performance. In contrast, studies on the effect of dual-tasks at the memory retrieval stage observed mixed results. Which cognitive mechanisms are underlying this dual-task interference is still an unresolved question. In the present study, we investigated the influence of a concurrent reaction-time task on the performance in a long-term memory task in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants performed an auditory-verbal free recall memory task and a visual-manual spatial Stroop task in a single or dual-task condition, either at the encoding or retrieval stage of the memory task. In Experiment 2, we examined the influence of processing conflicts in a concurrent RT task on memory encoding. Both experiments showed detrimental effects on recall accuracy and concurrent RT task performance in dual-task conditions at the encoding stage. Dual-task conditions at the retrieval stage led to a slowdown in recall latency and impaired concurrent RT task performance, but recall accuracy was maintained. In addition, we observed larger Stroop congruency effects in the dual-task conditions, indicating an increased processing conflict. However, in Experiment 2, we analyzed the effect of the processing conflict in a time-locked manner and could not find a significant influence on success of memory encoding. These findings suggest that processes in both tasks share the same limited capacity and are slowed down due to parallel processing, but we could not find evidence that this is further influenced by task-specific processing conflicts.
在记忆编码阶段进行双重任务已被证明会降低回忆表现，并损害同时进行的任务表现。相比之下，关于记忆检索阶段双重任务的影响的研究则观察到了混合的结果。哪些认知机制是这种双重任务干扰的基础，仍然是一个未解决的问题。在本研究中，我们在两个实验中研究了在长期记忆任务中同时进行反应时任务对表现的影响。在实验 1 中，参与者在单个或双重任务条件下，在记忆任务的编码或检索阶段执行听觉言语自由回忆记忆任务和视觉手动空间 Stroop 任务。在实验 2 中，我们检查了在同时进行的 RT 任务中处理冲突对记忆编码的影响。两个实验都表明，在编码阶段的双重任务条件下，回忆准确性和同时进行的 RT 任务表现都受到了损害。在检索阶段的双重任务条件下，回忆潜伏期延长，同时进行的 RT 任务表现受损，但回忆准确性保持不变。此外，我们在双重任务条件下观察到更大的 Stroop 一致性效应，表明处理冲突增加。然而，在实验 2 中，我们以时间锁定的方式分析了处理冲突的影响，没有发现对记忆编码成功有显著影响。这些发现表明，两个任务中的过程共享相同的有限容量，并由于并行处理而减慢，但我们没有发现证据表明这进一步受到特定任务处理冲突的影响。
