Witnessing postevents does not change memory traces, but can affect their retrieval
✍ Scribed by Carla C Chandler; Gary J Gargano; Brian C Holt
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2000
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 107 KB
- Volume
- 15
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0888-4080
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The results of three experiments suggest that a memory trace for an event is not altered by witnessing similar events\ but that postevents can interfere with its retrieval[ On an immediate recall test\ details from an original story "e[g[ wrench# were recalled less often if a subsequent story mentioned a {screwdriver| than if it did not[ The interference e}ect occurred if people were asked to recall details from both stories "tool ** **#\ but not if people were asked to recall primarily from the _rst story[ Thus\ the interference e}ect in immediate recall was averted if the target trace could be activated selectively "Experiments 0a and 0b#[ A more general interference e}ect was found after a day[ Fewer targets from the original story were recalled if the second story was presented just before the test than if both stories occurred a day earlier[ Thus\ the second story interfered with recall only if it emphasized contextual retrieval cues that did not match the trace for the targets "Experiment 1#[