CONTEXTUAL STIMULI AND PROACTIVE INHIBITION

A special box was constructed making it possible for undergraduates to learn and recall in either of 2 distinctive environments, the other environment being a conventional memory drum. 3 experiments were conducted; in each Ss served for several daily sessions, each day learning 2 lists of 25 words by serial anticipation, after being tested by free recall for the 2 lists learned the day before. In each experiment, 1/2 of the Ss were subjected to a change in environment during the experiment, and the change was maintained until the end of the experiment. Recall became worse with successive days. A change of context improved recall or retarded its decline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1968 American Psychological Association.