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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 23, 2026

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions

Published on: July 16, 2015

Lost thoughts: implicit semantic interference impairs reflective access to currently active information.

Julie A Higgins¹, Marcia K Johnson¹

¹Department of Psychology, Yale University.

Journal of Experimental Psychology. General

|April 18, 2012

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Implicit semantic interference, or unaware cognitive interference, can disrupt our ability to recall recently accessed thoughts. This interference affects thought refreshing, potentially explaining lost thought experiences.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience

Background:

Individuals often experience difficulty accessing thoughts that were recently in focus, even without apparent distractions.
The role of subtle, unconscious interference in memory retrieval remains an area of active investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the hypothesis that implicit semantic interference affects the refreshing of actively held thoughts.
To determine if semantic relationships between masked stimuli and target thoughts impact retrieval time.

Main Methods:

Participants were presented with a target word and then a masked word (semantically related or unrelated) after a brief delay.
The time taken to mentally refresh (re-access) the target word was measured.
Control condition involved reading a physically present target word.

Main Results:

Masked words semantically related to the target word significantly increased the time required to refresh the target.
Unrelated masked words did not affect target refreshing time.
The presence of masked words did not influence the time to read a physically presented target word.

Conclusions:

Active thoughts are susceptible to implicit semantic interference, demonstrating that even unconscious stimuli can disrupt cognitive access.
This implicit semantic interference may be a contributing factor to the common phenomenon of 'lost thoughts'.
Findings suggest potential implications for understanding cognitive deficits in populations with impaired thought refreshing abilities.