Retroactive Interference and Amount of Original Learning in Verbal and Motor Tasks

Abstract

Earlier work has indicated that the relationship between amount of original learning (OL) and the subsequent retroactive inhibition (RI) was negative for verbal tasks and positive for motor tasks. The data from three earlier studies were reanalyzed and, when RI was measured as the mean decrement in performance in all studies, the relationship between OL and RI was positive for both motor and verbal tasks. However, relative RI score produced differences among the various findings, and an explanation was provided in terms of ceiling effects for the tasks. This reanalysis seems to indicate that a single theory of forgetting can be explanatory for both motor and verbal responding.