Retroactive Facilitation Research Articles

Interpolated retrieval retroactively increases recall and promotes cross-episode memory interdependence.

Retrieving existing memories before new learning can lead to retroactive facilitation. Three experiments examined whether interpolated retrieval is associated with retroactive facilitation and memory interdependence that reflects integrative encoding. Participants studied two lists of cue-response word pairs that repeated across lists (A-B, A-B), appeared in list 1 (A-B, -), or included the same cues with changed responses in each list (A-B, A-C). For A-B, A-C pairs, the tasks interpolated between lists required recall of list 1 (B) responses (with or without feedback) or restudy of complete list 1 (A-B) pairs. In list 2, participants only studied pairs (experiment 1) or studied pairs, attempted to detect changed (C) responses, and attempted to recall list 1 responses for detected changes (experiments 2 and 3). On a final cued recall test, participants attempted to recall list 1 responses, indicated whether responses changed between lists, and if so, attempted to recall list 2 responses. Interpolated retrieval was associated with subsequent retroactive facilitation and greater memory interdependence for B and C responses. These correlational findings are compatible with the view that retrieval retroactively facilitates memories, promotes coactivation of existing memories and new learning, and enables integrative encoding that veridically binds information across episodes.

Personal reminders: Self-generated reminders boost memory more than normatively related ones.

People generate reminders in a variety of ways (e.g. putting items in special places or creating to-do lists) to support their memories. Successful remindings can result in retroactive facilitation of earlier information; in contrast, failures to remind can produce interference between memory for related information. Here, we compared the efficacy of different kinds of reminders, including participant's self-generated reminders, reminders created by prior participants, and normatively associated reminders. Self-generated reminders boosted memory for the earlier target words more than normatively associated reminders in recall tests. Reminders generated by others enhanced memory as much as self-generated reminders when we controlled output order during recall. The results suggest that self-generated reminders boost memory for earlier studied information because they distinctly point towards the target information.

The role of reminding in retroactive effects of memory for older and younger adults.

Retroactive interference refers to the impairing effects of new learning on earlier memories. The memory-for-change framework posits that being reminded of earlier information when learning new information can alleviate such retroactive interference and lead to facilitation. Such effects have been shown in younger adults, but the extent to which remindings play a role in retroactive effects of memory for older adults has not been examined. We address this issue here in two experiments using variants of an A-B, A-C paired associate paradigm. Participants studied two lists containing associated word pairs that: repeated across lists (A-B, A-B), included the same cue with a changed response in List 2 (A-B, A-C), or only appeared in List 1 (A-B), and then completed a cued-recall test of List 1. Participants reported List 1 reminding during List 2 study and recollection of reminding at test. Neither age group showed retroactive interference in overall List 1 recall, but younger adults showed poorer source monitoring by producing more List 2 intrusions onto List 1 recall than older adults. For both age groups, reminding was associated with retroactive facilitation for List 1 recall, whereas the absence of reminding was associated with retroactive interference. The benefits associated with reminding and recollection of reminding were greater for younger than older adults, partly because younger adults were able to recollect remindings more often than older adults. Together these results implicate a role for reminding in retroactive effects of memory that is more facilitative for younger than older adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The importance of time to think back: The role of reminding in retroactive effects of memory.

Change has been described as detrimental for later memory for the original event in research on retroactive interference. Popular accounts of retroactive interference treat learning as the formation of simple associations and explain interference as due to response competition, perhaps along with unlearning or inhibition of the original response. By such accounts, providing additional study time for a changed response in a classic A-B, A-D learning paradigm should increase retroactive interference. In contrast, our experiments show that changing a response produces retroactive facilitation rather than retroactive interference but that outcome requires that the change be detected in the form of a reminding. When reminding does not occur, retroactive interference is observed. Increasing time to study the changed response increases the likelihood of being reminded. Accounts in terms of simple associations cannot explain the importance of reminding. We do so by assuming that being reminded results in a recursive representation that includes both the original and changed response along with the order in which they occurred. We discuss the importance of our results for application as well as for theory. (PsycINFO Database Record

Memory consequences of looking back to notice change: Retroactive and proactive facilitation.

Three experiments contrasted recollection of change with differentiation as means of avoiding retroactive interference and proactive interference. We manipulated the extent to which participants looked back to notice change between pairs of cues and targets (A-B, A-D) and measured the effects on later cued recall of either the first or second response. Two lists of word pairs were presented. Some right-hand members of pairs were changed within List 2, whereas others were changed between lists. Participants in a Within-List Back condition were instructed to detect changes that occurred only during List 2, in an effort to reduce noticing changes in pairs between lists while simultaneously differentiating the 2 lists. In contrast, participants in an N-Back condition were instructed to detect both within-list and between-list changes. Recall of first list responses that changed between lists produced retroactive facilitation for the N-Back condition but not for the Within-List Back condition. Similarly, recall of second list responses that changed between lists produced proactive facilitation for the N-Back condition but not for the Within-List Back condition. The greater extent of looking back increased detection of change and later recollection of change, which produced facilitation. When change was not recollected, detected change produced proactive interference. The recursive reminding produced when change is noticed contrasts with the simple associations of classic interference theory, and memory performance when change is recollected contrasts with the predictions of interference theory.

Proactive and retroactive transfer of middle age adults in a sequential motor learning task

We assessed the effects of aging in the transfer of motor learning in a sequential manual assembly task that is representative for real working conditions. On two different days, young (18–30years) and middle-aged adults (50–65years) practiced to build two products that consisted of the same six components but which had to be assembled in a partly different order. Assembly accuracy and movement time during tests, which were performed before and after the practice sessions, were compared to determine proactive and retroactive transfer.The results showed proactive facilitation (i.e., benefits from having learned the first product on learning the second one) in terms of an overall shortening of movement time in both age-groups. In addition, only the middle-aged adults were found to show sequence-specific proactive facilitation, in which the shortening of movement time was limited to components that had the same the order in the two products. Most likely, however, the sequence-specific transfer was an epiphenomenon of the comparatively low rate of learning among the middle-aged adults. The results, however, did reveal genuine differences between the groups for retroactive transfer (i.e., effects from learning the second product on performance of the first). Middle-aged adults tended to show more pronounced retroactive interference in terms of a general decrease in accuracy, while younger adults showed sequence-specific retroactive facilitation (i.e., shortening of movement times for components that had the same order in the two products), but only when they were fully accurate. Together this suggests that in the learning of sequential motor tasks the effects of age are more marked for retroactive transfer than for proactive transfer.

Sensing the Future: Reversed Causality or a Non-standard Observer Effect?

In three experiments, Daryl Bem’s experimental method on retroactive facilitation of recall was replicated, with minor modifications, with the aim of testing robustness of Bem’s retroactive effect. In Experiment 1, the original doubleblind procedure was replaced by the single blind procedure under which the experimenter, but not participants, knew what the experimental conditions were. In the experimental condition of this experiment Bem’s results were successfully replicated, however, in the control condition, which was supposed to produce null effect, the effect was significant and a mirror image of the effect in the experimental condition. In Experiment 2, the control condition was run before the experimental condition. As in Experiment 1, the results in both conditions were symmetrical, though this time not significantly different from zero. In Experiment 3, in the experimental condition the results were reversed to those in Experiment 1. Altogether, the results marginally support robustness of Bem’s reported effect. However, the results do not support the interpretation of this effect as an effect in inverted causality. Rather, the results of this study suggest that the effect reported by Bem is a particular case of a number of possible outcomes, which occur when Bem’s method is applied. The results also suggest that these outcomes occur due to a direct effect of the observer’s mind on the RNG functioning.

Correcting the past: Failures to replicate psi.

Across 7 experiments (N = 3,289), we replicate the procedure of Experiments 8 and 9 from Bem (2011), which had originally demonstrated retroactive facilitation of recall. We failed to replicate that finding. We further conduct a meta-analysis of all replication attempts of these experiments and find that the average effect size (d = 0.04) is no different from 0. We discuss some reasons for differences between the results in this article and those presented in Bem (2011).

Failing the Future: Three Unsuccessful Attempts to Replicate Bem's ‘Retroactive Facilitation of Recall’ Effect

Nine recently reported parapsychological experiments appear to support the existence of precognition. We describe three pre-registered independent attempts to exactly replicate one of these experiments, ‘retroactive facilitation of recall’, which examines whether performance on a memory test can be influenced by a post-test exercise. All three replication attempts failed to produce significant effects (combined n = 150; combined p = .83, one-tailed) and thus do not support the existence of psychic ability.

Correcting the Past: Failures to Replicate Psi

Across seven experiments (N = 3,289) we replicate the procedure of Experiments 8 and 9 from Bem (2011), which had originally demonstrated retroactive facilitation of recall. We failed to replicate that finding. We further conduct a meta-analysis of all replication attempts of these experiments and find that the average effect size (d = .04) is no different from zero. We discuss some reasons for differences between the results in this paper and those presented in Bem (2011).

Examining Retroactive Facilitation of Recall: an Adapted Replication of Bem (2011, Study 9) and Galak and Nelson (2010)

The author performed a procedure to test precognitive features of word recall termed “Retroactive Facilitation of Recall” in Bem (2011) by adapting the failed replication procedure performed by Galak and Nelson (2010.) Despite enhancing subjects’ opportunities to demonstrate the effect using handwritten practice scenarios, this small group of UFO and paranormal enthusiasts failed to replicate the phenomenon as well. This paper provides a brief description of similarities and differences between Bem’s study #8 and #9, and a description of how Galak and Nelson’s procedures were adapted in this study. We conducted (1) an informal demonstration of the effect during an on-air radio broadcast with a single in-studio subject and (2) an experimental procedure using volunteer subjects in a joint meeting of the Omaha UFO Study Group, University of Nebraska at Omaha UFO Study Group, and chapter meeting of Nebraska MUFON, who agreed to collective administration of Galak and Nelson’s online interactive website application.

Feeling the future: Experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect.

The term psi denotes anomalous processes of information or energy transfer that are currently unexplained in terms of known physical or biological mechanisms. Two variants of psi are precognition (conscious cognitive awareness) and premonition (affective apprehension) of a future event that could not otherwise be anticipated through any known inferential process. Precognition and premonition are themselves special cases of a more general phenomenon: the anomalous retroactive influence of some future event on an individual's current responses, whether those responses are conscious or nonconscious, cognitive or affective. This article reports 9 experiments, involving more than 1,000 participants, that test for retroactive influence by "time-reversing" well-established psychological effects so that the individual's responses are obtained before the putatively causal stimulus events occur. Data are presented for 4 time-reversed effects: precognitive approach to erotic stimuli and precognitive avoidance of negative stimuli; retroactive priming; retroactive habituation; and retroactive facilitation of recall. The mean effect size (d) in psi performance across all 9 experiments was 0.22, and all but one of the experiments yielded statistically significant results. The individual-difference variable of stimulus seeking, a component of extraversion, was significantly correlated with psi performance in 5 of the experiments, with participants who scored above the midpoint on a scale of stimulus seeking achieving a mean effect size of 0.43. Skepticism about psi, issues of replication, and theories of psi are also discussed.

A Replication of the Procedures from Bem (2010, Study 8) and a Failure to Replicate the Same Results

We replicated the procedure of Experiment 8 from Bem (2010), which had originally demonstrated retroactive facilitation of recall. We failed to replicate the result. The paper includes a description of our procedure and analysis as well as a brief discussion for some reasons why we obtained a different result than in the original paper.

Retrograde Enhancement of Human Kinesthetic Memory by Alcohol: Consolidation or Protection against Interference?

Alcohol intake is known to impair memory in animals and humans. However, five studies reported that “medium” (0.05 ml/kg body weight) to “high” (1.0 ml/kg body weight) doses of alcohol improved memory when drunk immediately after initial learning of verbal or visual material. It was proposed that alcohol brought about this retroactive facilitation either through enhanced consolidation of memory traces or by protecting against retroactive interference. The present double blind study compared the performances of an alcohol and a placebo group on a kinesthetic memory task before alcohol or placebo intake and at retest 1 h after consumption. A second experiment was identical to the first except that all subjects carried out two trials on a T maze in the hour between testing and retesting. The alcohol group in the first experiment performed significantly better than the placebo group at retest (p< .05) but this was not the case in the second experiment. Alcohol therefore enhanced performance on the kinesthetic memory task in the first experiment but may not have protected against the moderate interference from the T maze in the second. The low levels of alcohol could have had a stimulant effect on trace consolidation, perhaps via raised blood glucose levels.

Short duration of retroactive facilitation of social recognition in rats

Adult rats spent less time investigating the same juvenile during a second dyadic encounter session. This decrease served as an index for social recognition. Social recognition was not influenced by isolating the juveniles for 7 days prior to experimentation. Retroactive facilitation of social recognition was observed when the two rats were confronted for a longer period of time on a given day by multiple testing. However, this facilitation was not observed after a 24-h interexposure interval between encounter sessions, even when different housing conditions during that time were taken into account, and animals were tested during 5 consecutive days. It is suggested that social recognition may be a form of short-term memory.

Modulation of social memory in male rats by neurohypophyseal peptides.

Adult male rats spend a great amount of time investigating novel juveniles. In contrast, rats re-exposed to the same juvenile 30 min after the initial exposure display little investigatory behavior. If the re-exposure occurs 2 h later, the juvenile is thoroughly investigated. These results have been interpreted to mean that rats form a transient memory for a particular juvenile. In the present study, memory was enhanced when the initial exposure to the juvenile was followed by another exposure to the same juvenile (retroactive facilitation) and impaired when exposure to the original juvenile was followed by exposure to another juvenile (retroactive interference). Arginine vasopressin had retroactive facilitating effects on social memory and these effects were blocked by the vasopressor antagonist dPTyr(Me)AVP. Moreover, the antagonist had retroactive interfering effects, since it impaired the recognition of a familiar juvenile. Oxytocin shared the same inhibitory pattern of action. These results suggest that neurohypophyseal peptides may have a prepotent role in modulating the mnemonic processing of chemosensory information associated with social interactions.

Retroactive interference and facilitation: A test of transfer surfaces

The frontal planes of the Osgood's (1949) and Holding's (1976) proaction and retroaction surfaces suggest that functionally identical responses will produce facilitation of learning and recall, and at a point between functional identity and high similarity, facilitation will decline to interference. The Osgood surface predicts that interference will then slowly increase as similarity decreases towards response neutrality and then sharply rise to maximum interference as response similarity approaches that of antagonistic responses. The Holding surface suggests, however, that the change from facilitation to interference is a step function where maximal interference is achieved when responses are no longer functionally identical. Maximal interference is maintained as response similarity decreases. Using stimulus conditions which were held constant and responses which were varied in magnitude, the relationship between the similarity of responses and both retroactive facilitation and interference was examined. Nine groups of ten subjects learned (15 trials), and recalled (3 trials), a criterion movement of 35 cm on a linear slide apparatus. Interpolated between learning and recall, each group was given 15 trials of a movement which differed in degree of similarity to the criterion movement. Analysis of variance performed on the absolute errors of recall of the criterion movement revealed significant group effects, F(8, 81) = 2.20, p < 0.05. Facilitation dropped sharply to maximal interference when the similarity between the interpolated and criterion responses exceeded functional identity. Interference did not remain maximal as response similarity decreased, however, but rapidly declined to facilitation. The substantial learning enhancement observed with larger interpolated responses was suggested as resulting from changes in the adaptation level that were induced by the interpolated movements. Retroactive interference was discussed in terms of Newell and Barclay's (1982) perspective of hierarchical schemata representation of movement.

Erratum: Proactive and Retroactive Facilitation of Long-Term Retention by Curriculum Continuity

Erratum: Proactive and Retroactive Facilitation of Long-Term Retention by Curriculum Continuity

Proactive and Retroactive Facilitation of Long-Term Retention by Curriculum Continuity

A longitudinal research study was designed to investigate effects of mutual interrelations between courses in sequential teaching on long-term retention of learning. This paper mainly relates to the following question: Is the retention of previously learned course material facilitated by new content taught in subsequent courses? Students were followed up for 3 consecutive years from junior to senior high school. Two groups were investigated: Both had studied the same introductory physical science course in grade 7, but only one group continued to study related physical science topics in grade 8. Analysis of longitudinally matched data detected significant proactive and retroactive effects of courses: (a) Prior knowledge acquired in grade 7 facilitated further learning in grade 8; and (b) retention of the grade 7 subject matter over a 2-year interval was higher in the group that had studied physical science continuously during grades 7 and 8. These long-lasting effects are not due to mere rehearsal, since the content of the grade 7 course is used but not retaught in subsequent courses. Explanations are provided by Ausubel’s assimilation theory. The main educational implication is that a program composed of a hierarchical sequence of learning units is superior to a discontinuous array of discrete courses.

The Retroactive Effects of Prior Knowledge and Elaborative Processing on Prose Retention

AbstractAn experiment was conducted to examine the relative contributions of prior knowledge and elaborate processing to prose memory using a retroactive interference paradigm. One hundred eighty undergraduates from introductory educational psychology classes were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group in one of six treatment conditions (n = 15). Using the mean scores of the control group from each condition as expected values, derived scores indicating the amount of retroactive interference or facilitation were calculated for experimental groups in each condition. Treatment conditions, allowing prior knowledge to operate, differed reliably from the baseline condition. However, conditions which precluded prior knowledge mediation differed reliably from the baseline condition. Results indicate that both prior knowledge and elaborative processing operate to diminish retroactive interference generated by reading a second passage. These data are seen as a basis for speculation on the rel...