title: Searching for interference effects in learning new face-name associations.
abstract: In three experiments we attempted to increase interference using experimental manipulations in a face-name learning paradigm. All experiments included young and older adult participants because ageing is associated with increases in both susceptibility to interference and difficulty in learning face-name associations. None of the experiments produced interference for either age group: The inclusion of confusable (i.e., ambiguous) names and occupations, having to learn an additional piece of information in association with each face, and requiring participants to guess when uncertain all failed to negatively impact name learning. Interference does not appear to be the critical mechanism underlying the difficulty of learning proper names, and it cannot account for older adults' disproportionate decline in name-learning ability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO 80918, USA. ljames@uccs.edu
authors.forename: Lori E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: James
authors.forename: Sarah K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Tauber
authors.forename: Ethan A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: McMahan
authors.forename: Shalyn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Oberle
authors.forename: Ashley P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.forename: Kethera A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Fogler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D001245:Association Learning; D005145:Face; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008875:Middle Aged; D009275:Names; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D014796:Visual Perception