Abstract
116 research participants learned a series of three lists and recalled two of them following the delayed free-recall procedure of Shiffrin (1970). Each list was either short (8-items) or long (24-items). Unlike Shiffrin (1970) observed interference effects in recall (p < .01) were attributable to the length of interfering lists. The explanation offered for the difference in results for the two experiments was that, with a series of only three lists, interference was less likely to reach asymptote whereas with the long series of lists (20) used by Shiffrin interference reached asymptote and was not observed. As in Shiffrin's study, probability of recall from a list varied inversely with length of list (p < .01).
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