Trial order and retention interval in human predictive judgment

The influences of order of trial type and retention interval on human predictive judgments were assessed for a cue that was reinforced on half of its training presentations. Subjects observed 10 cue-outcome presentations (i.e., reinforced trials) and 10 cue-alone presentations (i.e., nonreinforced trials) in one of three different orders: all nonreinforced trials followed by all reinforced trials(latent inhibition), reinforced and nonreinforced trials interspersed (partial reinforcement), or al lreinforced trials followed by all nonreinforced trials (extinction). Ratings were based mainly on the most recent event type (i.e., a recency effect) when the test occurred immediately after training but were based mainly on initial event types (i.e., a primacy effect) when the test occurred after a 48-h delay. The subjects tested both immediately and with a long retention interval did not exhibit this shift to primacy (i.e., the recency effect persisted). These results demonstrate noncatastrophic forgetting and the flexible use of trial order information in predictive judgments.