Representation of unattended material in memory

The current study addresses how information whose processing was not part of task requirement (unattended) is represented in memory. Using a novel measure, recognition memory for unattended material was assessed twice, once when it appeared with the same (old) attended study target and once with a new target. The data reveal memory for unattended study information only in the old target condition. Results suggest that the entire study event is encoded and represented in a memory trace, which contains both attended target information along with unattended context information. In conclusion, manifestation of unattended memory may be dependent on the presence of old target information at test.

► A novel measure for assessing unattended memory was introduced.
► Unattended memory was assessed both in the presence of old and new study targets.
► Memory for unattended context was only observed when tested in the presence of old targets.
► Data suggest that the whole study event, attended along with unattended items, is represented in a single compound trace.