Retroactive and Proactive Inhibition in Retention: Evidence for a Two-Factor Theory of Retroactive Inhibition

Abstract

In a recent study of the relationship between the amount of retroactive inhibition (RI) and the degree of learning of the interpolated activity, Melton and Irwin' found reason to question the theory of RI which attributes all of the inhibition to a competition of the original and interpolated responses at the time of attempted recall and relearning of the original responses.2 It was shown that the degree of learning of the interpolated activity was differently related to the amount of RI, as measured by recall and relearning scores, and to the frequency of overt intrusions of interpolated responses during the recall and relearning of the original responses. On the assumption that the frequency of such overt intrusions serves as a measure of the amount of competition between the original and interpolated responses during recall and relearning, it follows that