| Abstract: | The influence of the environmental context upon serial learning was investigated in a PI design in Experiment 1 and an RI design in Experiment 2. Either one or four lists learned either before or after the critical list were used to manipulate PI or RI, respectively. Learning the critical list in the same room as the interference-inducing lists or in a different room provided the first context manipulation. The second context factor involved relearning the critical list in the same room as it was learned 24 hours earlier, or in a different one. In the PI study the early and middle thirds of the list were affected by context in original learning. In relearning, correct responses over the first two trials differed both as a function of number of prior lists learned and of original learning context. With RI, fewer trials to relearn were required by a condition involving facilitating context manipulations, relative to a neutral context, and a competing context condition was inferior. The results are largely consistent with predictions derived from the interference theory of forgetting and traditional associative learning theory. |
