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Time does not cause forgetting in short-term serial recall.

Stephan Lewandowsky¹, Matthew Duncan, Gordon D A Brown

¹University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia. lewan@psy.uwa.edu.au

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

|March 1, 2005

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

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Memory recall is affected by output interference, not output time. This study challenges time-based forgetting theories by showing retrieval speed doesn't impact serial recall performance.

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience

Background:

Time-based forgetting theories posit that memory performance degrades with increased delay between item study and recall.
These theories are foundational to many serial recall models, influencing their predicted behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

To compare the predictive accuracy of time-based versus event-based models of memory.
To experimentally test the influence of retrieval time on serial recall performance.

Main Methods:

Two experiments were conducted manipulating retrieval speed (6-10 seconds) using a suppressor task to prevent rehearsal.
Experiment 1 involved keyboard responses with vocal suppression; Experiment 2 used verbal recall paced by suppression repetitions.

Main Results:

Related Experiment Videos

Serial position curves overlapped across all retrieval speeds in both experiments.
Retrieval time demonstrated minimal to no effect on memory recall performance.

Conclusions:

The findings present a significant challenge to time-based forgetting theories in serial recall.
Output interference, not the duration of output time, is identified as the critical factor in serial recall accuracy.