Abstract
We investigated the claim that individual differences in working-memory capacity reflect limitations on the ability to inhibit task-irrelevant information and/or to maintain activation in the face of distracting or interfering events. Specifically, we investigated whether high- and low-capacity individuals differed in their susceptibility to interference on the Stroop task and whether high-capacity individuals employed a strategy for minimizing Stroop interference. In Experiment 1, we found that high-capacity participants showed substantial interference when conflict trials were infrequent, but almost no interference when conflict trials were frequent. In contrast, low-capacity participants showed substantial interference irrespective of the proportion of conflict trials. In Experiment 2, we found that high-capacity participants experienced substantial negative priming, slow responses when the to-be-named color was the irrelevant word on the previous trial. We discuss these results and their implications for highcapacity individuals’ ability to reduce Stroop interference in light of both inhibitory and noninhibitory accounts of negative priming.
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Long, D.L., Prat, C.S. Working memory and Stroop interference: An individual differences investigation. Mem Cogn 30, 294–301 (2002). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195290
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195290