Parallel memory retrieval in dual-task situations: II. Episodic memory.
Three experiments asked whether subjects could retrieve information from a 2nd stimulus while they retrieved information from a 1st stimulus. Subjects performed recognition judgments on each of 2 words that followed each other by 0, 250, and 1,000 ms (Experiment 1) or 0 and 300 ms (Experiments 2 and 3). In each experiment, reaction time to both stimuli was faster when the 2 stimuli were both targets (on the study list) or both lures (not on the study list) than when 1 was a target and the other was a lure. Each experiment found priming from the 2nd stimulus to the 1st when both stimuli were targets. Reaction time to the 1st stimulus was faster when the 2 targets came from the same memory structure at study (columns in Experiment 1; pairs in Experiment 2; sentences in Experiment 3) than when they came from different structures. This priming is inconsistent with discrete serial retrieval and consistent with parallel retrieval.
Logan
G D
GD
Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37240, USA. gordon.logan@vanderbilt.edu
Delheimer
J A
JA
D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012033:Refractory Period, Psychological