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The working memory stroop effect: when internal representations clash with external stimuli.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Kiyonaga, A; Egner, T
Published in: Psychological science
August 2014

Working memory (WM) has recently been described as internally directed attention, which implies that WM content should affect behavior exactly like an externally perceived and attended stimulus. We tested whether holding a color word in WM, rather than attending to it in the external environment, can produce interference in a color-discrimination task, which would mimic the classic Stroop effect. Over three experiments, the WM Stroop effect recapitulated core properties of the classic attentional Stroop effect, displaying equivalent congruency effects, additive contributions from stimulus- and response-level congruency, and susceptibility to modulation by the percentage of congruent and incongruent trials. Moreover, WM maintenance was inversely related to attentional demands during the WM delay between stimulus presentation and recall, with poorer memory performance following incongruent than congruent trials. Together, these results suggest that WM and attention rely on the same resources and operate over the same representations.

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Published In

Psychological science

DOI

EISSN

1467-9280

ISSN

0956-7976

Publication Date

August 2014

Volume

25

Issue

8

Start / End Page

1619 / 1629

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Stroop Test
  • Reaction Time
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Middle Aged
  • Memory, Short-Term
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
 

Citation

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Kiyonaga, A., & Egner, T. (2014). The working memory stroop effect: when internal representations clash with external stimuli. Psychological Science, 25(8), 1619–1629. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614536739
Kiyonaga, Anastasia, and Tobias Egner. “The working memory stroop effect: when internal representations clash with external stimuli.Psychological Science 25, no. 8 (August 2014): 1619–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614536739.
Kiyonaga A, Egner T. The working memory stroop effect: when internal representations clash with external stimuli. Psychological science. 2014 Aug;25(8):1619–29.
Kiyonaga, Anastasia, and Tobias Egner. “The working memory stroop effect: when internal representations clash with external stimuli.Psychological Science, vol. 25, no. 8, Aug. 2014, pp. 1619–29. Epmc, doi:10.1177/0956797614536739.
Kiyonaga A, Egner T. The working memory stroop effect: when internal representations clash with external stimuli. Psychological science. 2014 Aug;25(8):1619–1629.
Journal cover image

Published In

Psychological science

DOI

EISSN

1467-9280

ISSN

0956-7976

Publication Date

August 2014

Volume

25

Issue

8

Start / End Page

1619 / 1629

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Stroop Test
  • Reaction Time
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Middle Aged
  • Memory, Short-Term
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology