Attentional attenuation (rather than attentional boost) through task switching leads to a selective long-term memory decline

Muhmenthaler, Michèle C.; Meier, Beat · 2022 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1027871

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Summary

This study investigates how attentional demands during task switching affect long-term memory, specifically examining whether the memory costs associated with switching tasks persist over time and which memory components drive these effects. While previous research established that task switching impairs immediate memory due to reduced attentional resources, it remained unclear if this deficit endures after a long retention interval and whether it stems from impaired recollection (contextual detail retrieval) or familiarity (sense of prior exposure). The authors hypothesized that because recollection is more sensitive to attentional manipulations and declines faster than familiarity, the task-switching effect would be primarily driven by recollection and would remain evident after a one-week delay. To test this, the researchers conducted two experiments using a task-switching paradigm where participants classified pictures as either "living/non-living" or "smaller/larger than a soccer ball." In Experiment 1, 80 participants performed the task online, with half tested immediately and half tested after one week. Experiment 2 replicated the delayed condition with 82 participants in a laboratory setting to increase statistical power. After the study phase, participants completed a surprise recognition memory test using the "remember/know" paradigm to distinguish between recollection and familiarity. The study utilized bivalent stimuli, allowing all images to be used for both classification tasks, ensuring that any memory differences were attributable to the switching demand rather than stimulus properties. The results demonstrated consistent switch costs in both reaction time and accuracy during the study phase. Crucially, recognition memory was significantly lower for switch trials compared to repeat trials in both immediate and delayed tests. Analysis of the "remember/know" judgments revealed that this memory deficit was driven almost entirely by recollection. Participants gave significantly fewer "remember" responses for switch trials than for repeat trials in both experiments and both time intervals. In contrast, "know" responses (familiarity) did not differ significantly between switch and repeat trials in the delayed tests, and showed mixed or non-significant effects in immediate tests. This indicates that while the overall memory decline after one week was largely due to a drop in recollection, the specific disadvantage of switching tasks remained intact and was rooted in the failure to encode contextual details. The findings provide evidence for an "attentional attenuation" effect, where high cognitive control demands during task switching reduce the attention available for encoding, leading to a selective and enduring decline in recollection-based memory. Unlike the "attentional boost" effect, where transient attention increases enhance memory, this study shows that divided attention impairs the formation of robust memory traces. The results imply that the benefits of task repetition extend to long-term retention by facilitating deeper, more elaborated processing. Furthermore, the consistency between online and laboratory results validates the use of remote testing for such cognitive tasks. Ultimately, the study confirms that attentional requirements at encoding determine what is remembered later, with recollection being the critical component vulnerable to task-switching costs.

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• task switching