Transfer and retroaction under conditions of changed organization

If the process of learning a response sequence is one of organizing the sequence into chunks, then two responses should be identical only if their organizations are the same. For example, if SBJFQLZ was chunked as SB JFQ LZ during original learning and SBJ FQLZ during interpolated learning, the two responses should he different from the Ss' point of view. Therefore, negative transfer and retroactive inhibition should be obtained. The Ss learned three sequences of seven letters as paired-associate responses during both original and interpolated learning. The experiment was a 2 × 2 factorial with the two dimensions being same vs different letter sequences on original and interpolated learning, and same vs different grouping on original and interpolated learning. When Ss changed organization from original to interpolated learning, negative transfer and retroactive inhibition were obtained.