Category Length and Retroactive Inhibition in Cued Recall

Abstract

Effects of variation in category size upon retroactive inhibition under cued-recall conditions were examined. Category size was a within-subject variable (4, 8, or 16 items/category) in a design involving 72 subjects. For 36 subjects a second list of dissimilar categories was learned. Retroactive inhibition was observed relative to the single-list control, with retroactive inhibition being of greater magnitude for larger categories. The retroactive inhibition resulted from fewer words per category recalled rather than from a decrement in category recall since category recall was uniformly high, i.e., constant, under all conditions.