ROLE OF RESPONSE AVAILABILITY IN TRANSFER AND INTERFERENCE

Compared transfer and retroactive inhibition (RI) under 2 conditions of practice. In Condition R (recall method) presentations of a list of paired associates were alternated with test trials in which the responses to each of the stimuli were to be recalled. In Condition MC (multiple-choice method) S was required on the test trials to choose the correct response from a set of alternatives all of which were responses in the list. The paradigms of transfer were A-B, C-D; A-B, C-B; A-B, A-Br; A-B, A-B'; A-B, A-C. For the paradigms in which the responses remain the same (C-B and A-Br), and A-B' there were shifts in the direction of greater negative transfer in Condition MC than in Condition In Condition R there was significant RI for A-Br, A-B', and A-C; in Condition MC only for A-Br. It is concluded that (1) a positive component of response availability may mask associative interference, and (2) RI, and presumably unlearning, is primarily a matter of response loss with specific associations in general highly resistant to interference. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.