Dissociating the effects of encoding intentions and disengagement on recognition memory

Le résumé fourni par la source

Research on the effects of intentionality on memory has yielded heterogeneous results, with intentional encoding sometimes facilitating performance and sometimes showing no observable impact. A potential source of this variability may lie in internal disengagement states, such as mind-wandering and boredom, during encoding. In the present study, we investigated whether mind-wandering and boredom mediate the relationship between intention to remember and recognition memory. A total of 271 participants (Mage = 34.2, SDage = 7.6) completed a two-phase online experiment in which they encoded picture stimuli under intentional or incidental instructions, intermittently reporting their mind-wandering and boredom, followed by an old/new recognition task. Bayesian mediation analyses revealed that intentional encoding improved recognition accuracy, and that both mind-wandering and boredom independently predicted poorer recognition accuracy. However, encoding intention did not credibly reduce either mind-wandering or boredom, thus, they did not mediate the relationship between intention to remember and recognition accuracy. Instead, individual differences in trait mind-wandering and boredom proneness, as well as payment status, explained more variance in disengagement during encoding than the condition alone. These findings suggest that the benefits of intentional encoding for recognition memory may operate independently of changes in disengagement during encoding and highlight the importance of considering individual differences as a factor that influences recognition memory.

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