Memory for Recently Accessed Visual Attributes

Recent reports have suggested that the attended features of an item may be rapidly forgotten once they are no longer relevant for an ongoing task (attribute amnesia). This finding relies on a surprise memory procedure that places high demands on declarative memory. We used intertrial priming to examine whether the representation of an item's identity is lost completely once it becomes task irrelevant. If so, then the identity of a target on one trial should not influence performance on the next trial. In 3 experiments, we replicated the finding that a target's identity is poorly recognized in a surprise memory test. However, we also observed location and identity repetition priming across consecutive trials. These data suggest that, although explicit recognition on a surprise memory test may be impaired, some information about a particular target's identity can be retained after it is no longer needed for a task.