title: Effects of dividing attention on the memory-block effect.
abstract: S. M. Smith and D. R. Tindell (1997) reported that prior study of words that are orthographically similar to the solutions of test word fragments (e.g., studying ANALOGY and completing the fragment A_L _ _GY, whose solution is ALLERGY) reduced the fragment completion rate relative to a baseline condition in which unrelated words were studied. They called this effect the memory-block effect. In the present experiment, the authors replicated this effect using a larger set of materials than that used by S. M. Smith and D. R. Tindell. The authors also found that dividing attention at study eliminated the memory-block effect. This pattern mimicked the effect of dividing attention on recognition memory but differed from the effect on repetition priming effects. The authors suggest that the memory-block effect is driven by a mechanism different from that responsible for producing repetition priming effects in an implicit fragment completion test.
authors.affiliation: Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science and Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. sachiko@maccs.mq.edu.au
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kinoshita
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Towgood
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D014936:Word Association Tests