Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1989;51(4):176-80.
doi: 10.1007/BF00309145.

The effects of interference tasks on recency in the free recall of action events

The effects of interference tasks on recency in the free recall of action events

R L Cohen. Psychol Res. 1989.

Abstract

Lists of verbal instructions were read aloud and each was enacted either by the subject (SPTs) or by the experimenter (EPTs). In Experiment 1 free recall was made of lists of SPTs and EPTs either immediately after presentation, after an empty 20-s delay interval, or after a 20-s delay interval filled with backward counting. The recall of recency items was unaffected by the empty delay interval, but was somewhat reduced by the counting task. In Experiment 2 free recall was made of lists of SPTs and EPTs either immediately after presentation or after a delay that was filled with a single SPT or a single EPT, 20 s in length. The recency effect evident in the immediate-recall condition was virtually wiped out in the delay conditions, irrespective of whether the delay task matched those in the free-recall list or not. These results are discussed in terms of the mnemonic similarity of the two types of action event.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Q J Exp Psychol A. 1988 Aug;40(3):497-514 - PubMed
    1. Mem Cognit. 1983 Nov;11(6):575-82 - PubMed
    1. Mem Cognit. 1987 Mar;15(2):109-18 - PubMed
    1. Acta Psychol (Amst). 1985 Jan;58(1):81-106 - PubMed
    1. Mem Cognit. 1986 Jul;14(4):339-46 - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources