Proactive interference and complexity

C. L. Isaac and A. R. Mayes (1999a, 1999b) compared forgetting rates in amn esic patients and normal participants across a range of memory tasks. Altho ugh the results are complex, many of them appear to be replicable and there are several commendable features to the design and analysis. Nevertheless, the authors largely ignored 2 relevant literatures: the traditional litera ture on proactive inhibition/interference and the formal analyses of the co mplexity of the bindings (associations) required for memory tasks. It is sh own how the empirical results and conceptual analyses in these literatures are needed to guide the choice of task, the design of experiments, and the interpretation of results for amnesic patients and normal participants.