A cognitive interpretation of negative transfer and forgetting of paired associates

A new interpretation of negative transfer and forgetting is presented, using concepts of storage and retrieval from memory. According to the interpretation given, one process in negative transfer is interference with the stroage of new items, produced by carryover of the encodings of stimuli and responses from earlier pairings. The other process in transfer, and the main process in forgetting, is interference with the retrieval process, produced mainly by the inclusion of the same stimuli in two retrieval systems. These ideas are used to interpret three empirical results. The first came from measurements of difficulty in two stages of paired-associate memorizing that were obtained for four paradigms of negative transfer. A second finding is based on a series of different retention tests given after interpolated learning in the four paradigms. And the third result consists of evidence that recall of two responses paired with the same stimulus is independent.

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