Memory decrement and proactive interference

Author

William J. Thornton, Florida International University
Bennett L. Schwartz, Florida International University

Periodical Title

Modern Psychological Studies

Volume

3

Number

1

Page Numbers

pages 57-61

Department

Dept. of Psychology

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Date

1995

Abstract

We hypothesized that subjective expectations were responsible for the release from proactive interference (PI) rather than the actual change in taxonomic subcategories. The experimental conditions included informing or not informing subjects of the change in taxonomic subcategory, crossed with whether the taxonomic subcategory was actually changed or remained unchanged. The interest in whether a release would be seen when the subjects were informed of a change, yet no change was actually administered, was most specific. Significantly higher recall was found for the condition in which subjects were informed of a change, but no actual change occured (I-NC) than in the control condition in which subjects were neither informed of a change nor did one occur (NI-NC). The overall results indicated that control conditions revealed lower recall than other conditions, F(3, 129) = 2.96. p < .05 on the critical trial. However, even when subjects were not told of a change, but a change occured (NI-C) a release from PI was observed, M=.69. A release from PI may be induced by the subject's self-awareness of the change in taxonomic subcategory.

Subject

Psychology

Discipline

Psychology

Document Type

article

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

5 leaves

Language

English

Call Number

BF1 .M63 v. 3 no. 1 1995

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Recommended Citation

Thornton, William J. and Schwartz, Bennett L. (1995) "Memory decrement and proactive interference," Modern Psychological Studies: Vol. 3: No. 1, Article 9.
Available at: https://scholar.utc.edu/mps/vol3/iss1/9