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| Research article summary (published 27 Feb 2002): |
Word length effects are not due to proactive interference.
Full Abstract
In immediate serial recall short words are better recalled than long words. The word length effect has become pivotal in the development of short-term memory models. The current research tests one explanation of the word length effect; that it is related to proactive interference (PI). We report two experiments in which the relationship is directly tested. In the first experiment we show that word length effects can be observed over the first few trials in an experiment and that the effect shows itself primarily in the number of omissions made. In the second experiment we simultaneously test for PI and word length effects. Strong word length effects were present but there was little evidence for PI influencing either overall levels of recall or the word length effect. In short, no empirical support was found for PI as an explanation of the word length effect.
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Author information
Author/s: Tehan, Gerald (G); Turcotte, Josée (J);
Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia. tehan@usq.edu.au
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Journal: Memory (Hove, England) (Memory), published in England. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2002-Mar; vol 10 (issue 2) : pp 139-49
Dates: Created 2002/01/18; Completed 2002/05/07; Revised 2006/11/15;
PMID: 11798443, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
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