In almost every aspect of life, focusing on a target and ignoring distractors effectively is very important. Alternative to the common view, distraction may aid recognition via triggering automatic responses. Spontaneous recognition (SR) can be defined as the unintentional recognition of target stimuli and is measured by the effect of familiarity to distractors on a recognition task. Research has indicated that previously seen or not seen (old/new) distractors affect the recognition of targets. This research aimed to investigate the influence of working memory load on SR. A dual-task was designed to ensure engagement in two tasks—namely, the memory Stroop task (recognition task) and the n-back task (working memory task) at the same time. This design enabled an investigation of the influence of working memory load and allowed for further exploration of the influence of episodic memory load and the characteristics of n-back task. The results are in line with previous research; participants were more accurate when target and distractor were congruent versus when they were incongruent, but only when WM load was high. This interaction was modulated by episodic memory load and n-back task trials (match/mismatch). It was concluded that many factors may contribute to the SR effect. This research demonstrated that the SR effect is determined by WM availability and recognition processes engaged in another task.

在生活的几乎每个方面，专注于一个目标并有效地忽略干扰因素是非常重要的。替代普遍观点，分心可以通过触发自动响应来帮助识别。自发识别 (SR) 可以定义为对目标刺激的无意识别，并通过对干扰项的熟悉程度对识别任务的影响来衡量。研究表明，以前见过或没见过（旧/新）干扰物会影响目标的识别。本研究旨在调查工作记忆负荷对 SR 的影响。双任务旨在确保参与两个任务——即记忆 Stroop 任务（识别任务）和n-back 任务（工作记忆任务）同时进行。这种设计能够调查工作记忆负荷的影响，并允许进一步探索情景记忆负荷的影响和n- back 任务的特征。结果与之前的研究一致；当目标和干扰物一致与不一致时，参与者更准确，但仅当 WM 负载较高时。这种相互作用是由情景记忆负荷和n回任务试验（匹配/不匹配）调节的。得出的结论是，许多因素可能会导致 SR 效应。这项研究表明，SR 效果是由 WM 可用性和从事另一项任务的识别过程决定的。