title: Forgetting at short term: when do event-based interference and temporal factors have an effect?
abstract: Memory tasks combining storage and distracting tasks performed at either encoding or retrieval have provided divergent results pointing towards accounts of forgetting in terms of either temporal decay or event-based interference respectively. The aim of this study was to shed light on the possible sources of such a divergence that could rely on methodological aspects or deeper differences in the memory traces elicited by the different paradigms used. Methodological issues were explored in a first series of experiments by introducing at retrieval computer-paced distracting tasks that involved articulatory suppression, attentional demand, or both. A second series of experiments that used a similar design was intended to induce differences in the nature of memory traces by increasing the time allowed for encoding the to-be-remembered items. Although the introduction of computer-paced distracting tasks allowed for a strict control of temporal parameters, the first series of experiments replicated the effects usually attributed to event-based interference. However, deeper encoding abolished these effects while time-related effects remained unchanged. These findings suggest that the interplay between temporal factors and event-based interference in forgetting at short term is more complex than expected and could depend on the nature of memory traces.
authors: Université de Genève, Switzerland. Pierre.Barrouillet@unige.ch
authors: Pierre
authors: P
authors: Barrouillet
authors: Gaën
authors: G
authors: Plancher
authors: Alessandro
authors: A
authors: Guida
authors: Valérie
authors: V
authors: Camos
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D012107:Research Design; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult