Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Encoding new information in relation to existing knowledgebenefits learning. However, integration into existingknowledge might also lead to false memories for similar—butnever-studied—information. Here, we asked whether certainattentional encoding states promote the integration of newinformation into prior knowledge, thereby enhancing memoryand elevating false alarms. We manipulated participants’attention to semantic versus perceptual features by cueing themto alternately make a judgment about the story (semantic) orartistic style (perceptual) of a series of pictures. We then usedan old/new recognition test—which included new illustrationsdepicting studied stories or artistic styles (lures)—to assesswhether story attention increased false alarms to story lures,representing integration into story knowledge. We found thatsemantic attention benefited memory. However, whileintegration into prior semantic knowledge was high overall, itwas not impacted by attention. These findings suggest thatwhile semantic attention improves memory, it does not do soby boosting integration of new memories into existingknowledge structures.