Spontaneous Recognition: Investigating the Role of Working Memory

In almost every aspect of life, focusing on a target and ignoring distractors effectively is very important. Alternative to the common view, distraction may aid recognition via triggering automatic responses. Spontaneous recognition (SR) can be defined as the unintentional recognition of target stimuli and is measured by the effect of familiarity to distractors on a recognition task. Research has indicated that previously-seen or not-seen (old/ new) distractors affect the recognition of targets. This research aimed to investigate the influence of working memory load on SR. A dual-task was designed to ensure engagement in two tasks, namely, memory Stroop task (recognition task) and n-back task (working memory task) at the same time. This design enabled to investigate the influence of working memory load and allow for further exploration of the influence of episodic memory load and the characteristics of n-back task. The results are in line with previous research; participants were more accurate when target and distractor were congruent vs. incongruent but only when WM load was high. This interaction was modulated by episodic memory load and n-back task trials (match/mismatch). It was concluded that many factors may contribute to the SR effect. This research demonstrated that the SR effect is determined by WM availability and recognition processes engaged in another task.