Taxonomic categories and proactive interference in short-term memory

Abstract

The Ss were given four successive short-term memory trials with word triads. The retention interval was either 5 sec for all four trials or 15 sec for all four trials. When the word triads on each trial were drawn from different taxonomic classes, proactive interference was not found to develop across trials for either the 5-sec or 15-sec retention intervals. Furthermore, when the word triads on Trials 1-3 were from the same taxonomic class and the word triad on Trial 4 was from another taxonomic class, a release from proactive interference was obtained in both the 5-sec and 15-sec retention interval conditions. The results suggest that proactive interference in short-term memory is relatively class-specific and that release from proactive interference is best explained by an interference interpretation rather than a novelty interpretation.