Searching for two things at once: Evidence of exclusivity in semantic and autobiographical memory retrieval

We examined whether retrieval from semantic memory (Experiment 1) and autobiographical memory (Experiment 2) is exclusive, or whether people can search for two things at once. In Experiment 1, participants retrieved items as quickly as possible over 4 min from single categories (e.g., foods, countries) and from disjunctive categories (e.g., foods or countries). In Experiment 2, participants retrieved autobiographical episodes associated with single cue words (e.g.,flower, ticket) or with disjunctive cue words (e.g.,flower orticket). In both experiments, retrieval of items from the disjunctive category did not exceed predictions based on optimal sequencing of retrieval from the corresponding two single categories. That is, exclusivity was observed to occur in retrieval from among multiple nonoverlapping categories in both semantic and autobiographical memory.