Word frequency and the unit sequence interference hypothesis in short-term memory

The unit-sequence interference hypothesis predicts that high frequency words should be forgotten more rapidly than low frequency words. Experiments claiming to show unit-sequence interference in short-term memory are critically examined and four experiments are performed to investigate the retention of high and low frequency words over filled intervals of 0–30 sec. Results show (a) better overall performance on high frequency sequences, and (b) parallel forgetting of high and low frequency sequences. It is concluded that unit-sequence interference is not an important variable in short-term memory.

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