The episodic flanker effect: Memory retrieval as attention turned inward.

Abstract

This article tests the conjecture that memory retrieval is attention turned inward by developing an episodic flanker task that is analogous to the well-known perceptual flanker task and by developing models of the spotlight of attention focused on a memory list. Participants were presented with a list to remember (ABCDEF) followed by a probe in which one letter was cued (# # C # # #). The task was to indicate whether the cued letter matched the letter in the cued position in the memory list. The data showed classic results from the perceptual flanker task. Response time and accuracy were affected by the distance between the cued letter in the probe and the memory list (# # D # # # was worse than # # E # # #) and by the compatibility of the uncued letters in the probe and the memory list (ABCDEF was better than STCRVX). There were six experiments. The first four established distance and compatibility effects. The fifth generalized the results to sequential presentation of memory lists, and the sixth tested the boundary conditions of distance and flanker effects with an item recognition task. The data were fitted with three families of models that apply space-based, object-based, and template-based theories of attention to the problem of focusing attention on the cued item in memory. The models accounted for the distance and compatibility effects, providing measures of the sharpness of the focus of attention on memory and the ability to ignore distraction from uncued items. Together, the data and theory support the conjecture that memory retrieval is attention turned inward and motivate further research on the topic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).