Output Interference in the Recall of Categorized and Paired-Associate Lists

Three experiments are reported in which, following presentation of a categorized list, subjects attempted recall of words within categories when given the category names as cues. Recall of words declined with the test position of the category. This output interference was not increased (a) when some items from each category were given as cues in addition to the category name (Experiment 1), (b) when the first categories recalled contained nine rather than three words (Experiment 2), and (c) when the categories in the list were semantically related rather than unrelated (Experiment 3). Interference in recall of categories tested later was not affected by the number of words recalled from prior categories. Output interference in paired-associate recall was obtained in a fourth experiment. These experiments indicate that the act of recall can itself serve as a source of forgetting. Implications of the results for several theories of recall are discussed.