Hubbard Nicholas A, Weaver Travis P, Turner Monroe P, Rypma Bart
a McGovern Institute for Brain Research , Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge , MA , USA.
b Department of Psychology , Vanderbilt University , Nashville , TN , USA.
Memory. 2018 Oct;26(9):1191-1205. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2018.1428349. Epub 2018 Jan 29.
Recall accuracy decreases over successive memory trials using similar memoranda. This effect reflects proactive interference (PI) - the tendency for previously studied information to reduce recall of new information. However, recall improves if memoranda for a subsequent trial are semantically dissimilar from the previous trials. This improvement is thought to reflect a release from PI. We tested whether PI is reduced or released from the semantic category for which it had been induced by employing paradigms which featured inducement, semantic switch, and then return-to-original category epochs. Two experiments confirmed that PI was not released after various semantic switch trials (effects from d = -0.93 to -1.6). Combined analyses from both studies demonstrated that the number of intervening new category trials did not reduce or release PI. In fact, in all conditions recall accuracy decreased, demonstrating that PI is maintained and can increase after the new category trials. The release-from-PI account cannot accommodate these broader dynamics of PI. This account is also incongruent with evidence and theory from cognitive psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience. We propose a reintroduction-of-PI account which explains these broader PI dynamics and is consistent with the wider psychological and neurosciences.
在使用相似记忆材料进行连续的记忆试验时，回忆准确性会下降。这种效应反映了前摄干扰（PI）——即先前学习的信息会降低对新信息的回忆的倾向。然而，如果后续试验的记忆材料在语义上与先前试验不同，回忆会得到改善。这种改善被认为反映了从PI中的解脱。我们通过采用具有诱导、语义转换以及随后回归原始类别阶段的范式，测试了PI是否从其被诱导的语义类别中减少或解脱。两项实验证实，在各种语义转换试验后，PI并未解脱（效应值从d = -0.93到 -1.6）。两项研究的综合分析表明，中间新类别试验的数量并未减少或解脱PI。事实上，在所有条件下回忆准确性都下降了，这表明PI在新类别试验后仍持续存在且可能增强。从PI解脱的观点无法解释PI的这些更广泛的动态变化。这个观点也与认知心理学、语言学和神经科学的证据及理论不一致。我们提出了一个重新引入PI的观点，它解释了这些更广泛的PI动态变化，并且与更广泛的心理学和神经科学相一致。
