The Role of Practice in Fact Retrieval

Four experiments examined the relationship among massive practice, speed-up of memory retrieval, and the reduction of long-term memory interference. All experiments employed a multiday fact recognition procedure. Interference was varied by a fan manipulation: Concepts could appear in more than one fact (fan) or only one fact (no fan). We found that fact retrieval speeds up as a power function of days of practice but that the number of daily repetitions beyond four produced little or no impact on reaction time. In addition, interference decreased in proportion to the degree of practice but did not disappear even with 25 days of practice. Practice on specific facts and practice on the general task had multiplicative effects in reducing recognition time. Further, general task practice was found to decrease interference, suggesting that general central processes were speeding up. Most but not all of these practice effects and their interactions with interference are predicted by the ACT* model of fact retrieval.