University of Otago, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2012 Jan;38(1):255-9. doi: 10.1037/a0025197. Epub 2011 Aug 29.
In many theories, forgetting is closely linked to the passage of time. In the present experiments, recall in a short-term memory task was less accurate when the retention interval included a difficult arithmetic addition task, compared with an easy task. In a novel condition, the interfering task was switched from hard to easy partway through the retention interval. Recall accuracy at long retention intervals recovered from the level consistent with the hard interfering task to a more accurate level consistent with an easy interfering task. Such recovery is not in agreement with theories that link forgetting to the passage of time, such as trace decay. The reversed forgetting functions are more consistent with an account in which different levels of nonspecific retroactive interference in the retention interval just before the time of retrieval influence different levels of performance accuracy. With the uncoupling of interference levels from time, forgetting is dissociated from the passage of time.
在许多理论中，遗忘与时间的流逝密切相关。在本实验中，与简单任务相比，在包含困难算术加法任务的保留间隔内，短期记忆任务的回忆准确性较低。在一种新颖的条件下，干扰任务在保留间隔的中途从困难切换到容易。在长保留间隔处的召回准确性从与困难干扰任务一致的水平恢复到与容易干扰任务一致的更准确的水平。这种恢复与将遗忘与时间流逝联系起来的理论（例如痕迹衰减）不一致。相反的遗忘功能更符合这样一种解释，即在检索前的保留间隔内，不同程度的非特定回溯干扰会影响不同程度的性能准确性。随着干扰水平与时间的分离，遗忘与时间的流逝脱钩。
