title: Inhibitory control in memory: evidence for negative priming in free recall.
abstract: Cognitive control mechanisms--such as inhibition--decrease the likelihood that goal-directed activity is ceded to irrelevant events. Here, we use the action of auditory distraction to show how retrieval from episodic long-term memory is affected by competitor inhibition. Typically, a sequence of to-be-ignored spoken distracters drawn from the same semantic category as a list of visually presented to-be-recalled items impairs free recall performance. In line with competitor inhibition theory (Anderson, 2003), free recall was worse for items on a probe trial if they were a repeat of distracter items presented during the previous, prime, trial (Experiment 1). This effect was produced only when the distracters were dominant members of the same category as the to-be-recalled items on the prime. For prime trials in which distracters were low-dominant members of the to-be-remembered item category or were unrelated to that category--and hence not strong competitors for retrieval--positive priming was found (Experiments 2 and 3). These results are discussed in terms of inhibitory approaches to negative priming and memory retrieval.
authors.affiliation: chool of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Marsh
authors.forename: C Philip
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Beaman
authors.forename: Robert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.forename: Dylan M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011932:Reading; D013334:Students; D014495:Universities; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014825:Vocabulary