Hi
On Sun, 5 Mar 2000, Michael Ofsowitz wrote:
> For a class project I had students look for release from proactive
> interference in STM. They used the Brown-Peterson-Peterson
> distraction technique of counting backwards by 3's starting with
> 3-digit numbers like 482 to prevent rehearsal. One student reported
> the following:
>
> >Some subjects reported that when the numbers that started off as
> >easy calculations ie multiples of 3 or the number 0 they had less
> >trouble remembering the words than when the starting number was not
> >an easy calculation ie the numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, etc.
> Another student said that at debriefing one of her subjects said he
> was trying extra hard to remember the words while counting backwards.
>
> Is this common? Does B-P not distract rehearsal sufficiently in some
> instances (e.g., where the initial subtractions are more easily
> calculated)?
I'm not sure about the Brown-Peterson task in particular, but
difficulty of the distracting task does influence amount of
forgetting from STM in general (no references handy). It would
be interesting to see what effects there are of ease of the
series being subtracted, repetition of the subtractions, and the
like. I'm not sure about Brown, but Peterson and Peterson went
to great pains to ensure that deeper processing was not going on.
I believe that subjects had to perform the subtraction at the
rate of 1 operation per second and that they excluded trials in
which retrieval did not occur within a very bief time period
(i.e., precluding slower retrievals based on higher-level
processes).
Best wishes
Jim
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James M. Clark (204) 786-9757
Department of Psychology (204) 774-4134 Fax
University of Winnipeg 4L05D
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CANADA http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark
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