Abstract
The acoustic similarity and neutrality of letters was varied as response prefixes and stimulus suffixes and as members of a memory series in an immediate memory task. Each of 32 Ss vocalized 160 visually presented lists composed of randomly selected letters from an acoustically similar subset (BCDGPTVZ) and a neutral subset (HJLNRXQY), followed by ordered vocal recall. Half the Ss received each letter from the acoustically similar subset five times as a redundant element (additional letter) in a response prefix, a stimulus suffix, and a modified stimulus suffix condition, while the other half correspondingly received letters from the neutral subset. Predictions based on retroactive interference explanations of the similarity of the redundant letters to members of a memory series failed to be supported. In addition, the extent to which a stimulus suffix interferes with the final items in a series is independent of the spatial separation of that suffix.
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This research was supported, in part, by a grant from the University of Richmond, Richmond, Va.
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Smallwood, R.A., James Tromater, L. Acoustic interference with redundant elements. Psychon Sci 22, 354–356 (1971). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03332618
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03332618