Weight and See: Loading Working Memory Improves Incidental Identification of Irrelevant Faces

Carmel, David; Fairnie, Jake; Lavie, Nilli · 2012 · Frontiers in Psychology

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00286

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This study investigates how working memory load influences the incidental identification of task-irrelevant stimuli, addressing a gap in understanding how attentional prioritization affects the processing of distracting information. Guided by Lavie’s load theory, which posits that working memory actively maintains attentional priorities, the authors hypothesized that high working memory load would impair the suppression of irrelevant stimuli, thereby increasing their processing and subsequent identification. This question is relevant for both perceptual models and applied contexts like eyewitness testimony, where the ability to identify unexpected details depends on cognitive load. The researchers conducted four experiments using a dual-task paradigm. Participants performed a word-categorization task (e.g., categorizing names as singers/politicians or objects as kitchen/garden tools) while ignoring peripheral distractor images. This categorization occurred during the retention interval of a working memory task, where participants held either one digit (low load) or six digits (high load) in mind. Following the final trial, participants answered a surprise question assessing their identification of the distractor. Experiments 1 and 2 used famous faces as distractors, Experiment 3 used famous buildings, and Experiment 4 compared the distracting potency of faces versus buildings by measuring reaction time interference. The results demonstrated that high working memory load significantly improved the incidental identification of irrelevant faces. In Experiment 1, 76% of participants identified the face under high load compared to 52% under low load. Experiment 2 replicated this finding (79% vs. 47%) using a categorization task unrelated to the distractor, ruling out response competition as the cause. Conversely, Experiment 3 found no significant difference in the identification of famous buildings between high (56%) and low (47%) load conditions. Experiment 4 confirmed that faces are more distracting than buildings, producing greater reaction time interference. These findings indicate that the effect of working memory load on incidental identification is specific to stimuli that naturally compete for attention. The study concludes that working memory plays a critical role in determining whether distracting stimuli are processed to the level of individual identification. High working memory load impairs the executive control required to suppress high-priority distractors like faces, leading to increased processing and better incidental identification. However, this effect does not extend to less distracting stimuli like buildings, which do not sufficiently compete for attentional resources. This supports the view that attentional prioritization is an active process mediated by working memory, and that the processing of irrelevant information depends on the interplay between stimulus distraction potency and top-down control mechanisms.

Key finding

Loading working memory improves the incidental identification of highly distracting task-irrelevant faces, but not of less distracting buildings.

Methodology

lab_experiment

Sample size: 147

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via author_sweep_intake on 2026-05-28.

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• working memory