F. Craik - Division of attention during memory encoding and retrieval: Resolving a puzzle

Abstract
When events are encoded under dual-task conditions, subsequent memory for the events is poorer. This effect has been shown for word lists; greater emphasis on the secondary task results in lower memory performance for the words, and performance levels in the two tasks trade off against each other. Curiously, this does not happen when a secondary task is performed during memory retrieval. Memory is affected only slightly, and performance is unaffected by changes in emphasis, although performance on the secondary task is affected. This puzzle was resolved by examining changes in recognition decision times when attention was divided at retrieval. Response rates for recognition decisions and those for a secondary choice-RT task trade off against each other very precisely, suggesting that the two tasks tap some common resource.

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