title: Retroactive interference in short-term memory and the word-length effect.
abstract: Two experiments investigated the possibility that the word-length effect in short-term memory (STM) is a consequence of long words generating a greater level of retroactive interference than shorter words. In Experiment 1, six-word lists were auditorily presented under articulatory suppression for immediate serial reconstruction of only the first three words. These three words were always drawn from a single set of middle-length words, whereas the last three positions were occupied by either short or long interfering words. The results showed worse memory performance when the to-be-remembered words were followed by long words. In Experiment 2, a recent-probes task was used, in which recent negative probes matched a target word in trial n-2. The results showed lower levels of proactive interference when trial n-1 involved long words instead of short words, suggesting that long words displaced previous STM content to a greater extent. By two different experimental approaches, therefore, this study shows that long words produce more retroactive interference than short words, supporting an interference-based account for the word-length effect.
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, Facultad de Psicología, 30100 Murcia, Spain. gcampoy@um.es
authors.forename: Guillermo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Campoy
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011334:Proactive Inhibition; D012691:Serial Learning; D014706:Verbal Learning