REDUCING RETROACTIVE INTERFERENCE - AN INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS

In 4 experiments on retroactive interference (RI), we varied paired-as sociate learning lists that produced either appreciable or negligible forgetting. When the category of the stimulus word predicted its respo nse word category, and the response was relatively unique within its c ategory, learning was extremely rapid, and negative transfer and RI we re negligible. The more the competing primed items in the predicted re sponse category, the slower the learning and the greater the RI. If cu es and responses were unrelated, learning was very slow, and RI was ap preciable. Thus, predictive relations that help stimuli retrieve uniqu e responses greatly alter forgetting in RI paradigms.