Abstract
Sixty undergraduates participated in a memory experiment designed to examine the storage component of PI in the Brown-Peterson task. PI was built up in 24 blocks of four trials by presenting items from common taxonomic categories. Memory items were auditorily presented, and, in addition, subjects viewed slides shown during the study and retention stages of each trial. On the critical fourth trial of each block, experimental subjects viewed a slide showing the prior three memory items while attempting to memorize a fourth item from the same category. Contrary to the predictions of “acid bath” theory, the storage component of memory showed a trend toward release from PI when an item was studied and retained in the presence of similar prior items. Simple recall measures showed a trend toward the predicted PI exacerbation on the experimental fourth trials. However, a Bayesian storage and retrieval analysis (Chechile & Meyer, 1976) revealed that these effects were confined to the retrieval component of memory. The results are interpreted to suggest a model for storage PI similar to Conrad’s modified decay model.
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Chechile, R. The relative storage and retrieval losses in shortterm memory as a function of the similarity and amount of information processing in the interpolated task. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1973.
Gerrein, J. Organizational, storage, and retrieval factors in alcohol-induced forgetting. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Tufts University, 1976.
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Leonard C. Mead sponsors this paper and takes full editorial responsibility for its contents.
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Butler, K., Chechile, R. “Acid bath” effects on storage and retrieval PI. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 8, 349–352 (1976). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335163
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335163