Prior research indicates that manipulations of attention during encoding sometimes affect perceptual implicit memory. Two hypotheses were investigated. One proposes that manipulations of attention affect perceptual priming only to the extent that they disrupt stimulus identification. The other attributes reduced priming to the disruptive effects of distractor selection. The role of attention was investigated with a variant of the Stroop task in which participants either read words, identified their color, or did both. Identifying the color reduced priming even when the word was also overtly identified. This result held regardless of whether color and word were presented as a single object (Experiments 1 and 2) or as separate objects (Experiment 4). When participants read and identified a color, the overt order of the responses did not matter; both conditions reduced priming relative to reading alone (Experiment 3). The results provide evidence against the stimulus-identification account but are consistent with the distractor-selection hypothesis.

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Flashbulb memories are unusually vivid recollections of the circumstances in which one first learns of a shocking and emotionally arousing event. In the present study we examined students' memories concerning the death of Diana. Princess of Wales. Participants completed a standard flashbulb memory questionnaire 1 week after her death, in which they reported the circumstances in which they first heard the news. Accuracy of these memories (defined by consistency of responses across delays) was investigated by either a single retest 18 months after the event, or two retests at 3 and 18 months after the event. Participants' descriptions remained accurate at both 3 and 18 months, and testing at 3 months had no effect on accuracy of the subsequent 18-month responses. Consistent with previous research, both emotional intensity and rehearsal were related to accuracy.

Encoding action phrases by enactment produces better recall than hearing or reading the action phrase. This study examined whether enactment enhances memory relative to observing another perform the same action. Theories of the enactment effect suggest that the complexity of the action, here manipulated by varying the number of objects involved in an action, may determine whether enactment enhances memory relative to observation. The results revealed a consistent subject-performed task advantage across all object conditions; the size of the effect did not vary with increasing task complexity. Additionally, items that included the use of an object were recalled better than those without objects. The results are consistent with the views of Engelkamp and Zimmer (1997) and Backman, Nilsson, & Kormi-Nouri (1993), who argued that the SPT effect is due to motor and/or sensory encoding.