Auditory–verbal short-term memory effects of retention interval on proactive inhibition when interpolated interference is eliminated.

Three experiments examined auditory-verbal short-term memory using a visual nonverbal, high demand interpolated task, which successfully isolated modalities so as not to interfere with processing of the auditory-verbal items. Rehearsal was minimized, and errors were analyzed for evidence of proactive intrusions and intraunit interference. For 3-digit memory items, recall was excellent even after 60 sec (82%), and only 3% of all 3-digit items were forgotten for reasons other than measured interference. For 5-digit items, recall declined from 76% at 5 sec to approximately 65% at 9 sec. The only significant drop in recall after 9 sec was between 21 and 30 sec and was directly attributable to corresponding increases in proactive interference. Of all 5-digit items, only 5% were forgotten that were not accounted for by proactive intrusion or intraunit interference. The increase in proactive inhibition effects with increased retention interval is best fit by a model of short-term forgetting based on discriminability of temporal cues. (French summary) (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)