Chapter 1. Release from PI

Introduction

Remembering a list of three words should not be too difficult, right? Think about remembering a list of words such as CHAIR, SOFA, and TABLE. You see the list and after a short break, you have to recall it. Now assume that the next list you have to remember is DESK, COUCH, and SHELF. How accurate do you think your recall of the list would be? Most people might think that the second list is a little bit harder to retrieve accurately from memory because of some confusion with the items in the first list. This type of problem is called proactive interference. Interference is when learning one item or group of items makes retrieval of other items harder. Proactive interference is when something you learned earlier makes it more difficult to retrieve something you learned later. For example, in high school you study Spanish. You learn it well, but when you get to college, you decide to switch to French. You learn it well and take a trip to France to use your hard won French knowledge. You are having a conversation with a waiter but keep using the Spanish word for salt. The first-learned Spanish intrudes upon your attempts to retrieve your French. This task will examine this problem.

Ferraro, F., & King, B. (2004). Release from proactive interference with positive and negative words. The Psychological Record, 54(2), 199-206.

Wickens, D. D., Born, D. G., & Allen, C. K. (1963). Proactive inhibition and item similarity in short-term memory. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 2(5-6), 440-445.

Experiment Setup

Instructions

You will be presented with a list of three words. The list will be visible for a short duration. Your task will be to remember the words. There will be an intervening period, or delay, before you are asked to recall them. A number will appear on the screen. Immediately start counting backward by threes out loud as fast as you can, starting from the displayed number. If you lose track or forget the number, pick a different number and start over. It is vital that you do this task as quickly as you can. There will be a beeping tone to indicate how fast you should try to count. Do your best to keep up. In no case should you stop. At the same time, there will be a dot on the screen and a box. Move your mouse to track the dot. For this experiment to work, it is vital for you to be completely engaged in these intervening tasks.

After this intervening period, you will be shown three blanks. Please type in the three words, one word per blank, that you recall from the list just presented to you. When you are done, press the Done button and continue onto the next word list.

You will be presented with 6 lists.

Experiment

Results

Quiz