Revisiting an old issue: Retroactive interference as a function of the degree of original and interpolated learning

Abstract

Prior research has generally shown that the greater the degree of original learning of a list, the greater the amount of retroactive interference that list suffers. In addition, greater learning of interpolated lists produces more retroactive interference. However, in prior research, the degree of learning has typically been confounded with the amount of retrieval practice on the list. Two free-recall experiments are reported in which subjects studied one original list and then 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 interpolated lists. The degree of original and of interpolated learning was manipulated by varying exposure time. In Experiment 1, where the typical confounding of retrieval practice and degree of interpolated learning was present, greater interpolated learning induced greater retroactive interference, which is consistent with prior research. However, in Experiment 2, where the degree of interpolated learning was manipulated without concomitant variation in retrieval practice, retroactive interference was the same, whether the interpolated lists had been learned well or poorly. Therefore, greater interpolated learning does not increase the amount of retroactive interference. The results also show that the amount of retroactive interference does not depend on the degree of original learning, in agreement with other work on normal forgetting.