Remembering change: the critical role of recursive remindings in proactive effects of memory

In three experiments, we examined the role of the detection and recollection of change in proactive effects of memory in a classic A-B, A-D paradigm. Participants studied two lists of word pairs that included pairs repeated across lists (A-B, A-B), pairs with the same cue but a changed response (A-B, A-D) in the second list, and control pairs (A-B, C-D). The results revealed that performance on A-B, A-D pairs reflected a mixture of facilitation and interference effects. Proactive facilitation occurred when changes in responses were detected and recollected, whereas proactive interference occurred when change was not detected or when it was not recollected. We describe detecting change as involving recursive remindings that result in memory for the List 1 response being embedded in the representation of memory for the List 2 response. These embedded representations preserve the temporal order of the responses. Our findings highlight the importance of detection and recollection of change for proactive effects of memory.