title: Proactive interference and intertrial interval in short-term retention of temporal visual information.
abstract: The main purpose was to examine the role of proactive interference in temporal short-term memory when subjects experienced time under a conscious cognitive strategy for time estimation, made without time-aiding techniques. Visual durations of 1, 4, and 8 sec. were estimated by 18 subjects under the method of reproduction. Three retention intervals were used: immediate reproduction, 15, and 30 sec. of rest. The three intertrial intervals were immediate, 15, and 30 sec. Constant error was used as an index of bias. The constant errors provided no indication that proactive interference was operating in temporal short-term memory. The lack of proactive interference was not associated with intertrial intervals; even when the intertrial intervals were shortened to 1 sec. no proactive interference was observed. Variable error was used to evaluate effects of forgetting. The variable errors for the 4- and 8-sec. durations seemed amenable to a trace-decay explanation.
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008568:Memory; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011939:Mental Recall; D011334:Proactive Inhibition; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D013998:Time Perception