Effects of Interitem Associative Strength, Rehearsal, and Proactive Inhibition on the Retention of Paired-Associate Lists

Abstract

Eighty-six Ss were run in the proactive inhibition (PI) paradigm with the use of a 2 × 2 × 2 design with two levels of Interitem Associative Strength (IIAS), low and high; two of lists (one and two); and two of rehearsal (none and some). The Ss in the rehearsal condition were instructed to form associations between response terms and use them to retain stimulus-response connections. Recall was measured by a Modified Free Recall (MMFR) test followed by a Free Recall (FR) test; the retention interval was 24 hours. In the MMFR test, the hypothesis that high IIAS would cause decreased recall relative to low IIAS was confirmed, but the hypothesis that when IIAS was low, significant PI would be found only following rehearsal was not confirmed, so that previous findings by Houston were not replicated. In the FR test, the hypotheses that there would be significant PI, and that both rehearsal and high IIAS would benefit recall were confirmed. Hypotheses respecting the effectiveness of IIAS as a code were not confirmed.