Encoding deselection and long-term memory

Our information-rich environment increasingly requires us to process multiple sources of information simultaneously. These attentional demands can have long-term consequences for memory. A substantial empirical literature shows that long-term explicit memory is impaired following encoding tasks that require individuals to attend to two sources of information simultaneously. Such encoding demands do not, however, impair perceptual priming. Because perceptual priming is a robust measure, its resistance to division of attention is not entirely surprising. Yet attentional demands can have a negative influence even on perceptual priming when the encoding situation requires individuals to ignore information that was previously processed in order to focus on a different dimension. We discuss recent research on the fate of such ignored or deselected information in long-term memory. Because deselection is often necessary for accomplishing relevant goals in a variety of situations, a better understanding of its long-term effects can help explain fundamental cognitive processes that shape memory. In this chapter, we review evidence that shows that deselection effects on memory can be pervasive and that they can be resistant to different protective variables instantiated at encoding or retrieval. These findings show that the process of deselection is an important encoding mechanism underlying memory impairment.