Effect of similarity of interpolated materials on short-term recall

Abstract

Two experimental studies bear out the assertion that the probability of short-term recall of verbal units is adversely affected by the similarity of interpolated items. The possibility is conceded that some confounding of trace decay and interference factors may occur whenever an interval between an original presentation and its subsequent recall is filled with some intervening activity; yet it may be concluded that the results broadly corroborate and support the interference hypothesis as the major explanation of short-term forgetting, and of the decisive role of similarity.