Proactive interference (PI) refers to the finding that memory for recently studied (target) material can be impaired by the prior study of other (nontarget) material. Previous accounts of PI differed in whether they attributed PI to impaired retrieval or impaired encoding. Here, we suggest an integrated encoding-retrieval account, which assigns a role for each of the 2 types of processes in bui...

Interference between competing memories is a major source of retrieval failure, yet, surprisingly little is known about how competitive memory activation arises in the brain. One possibility is that interference during episodic retrieval might be produced by relatively automatic conceptual priming mechanisms that are independent of strategic retrieval processes. Such priming-driven interference...

Processes of proactive interference were explored using the pigeon as a model system of memory. This study shows that proactive interference extends back in time at least 16 trials (and as many minutes), revealing a continuum of interference and providing a framework for studying memory. Pigeons were tested in a delayed same/different task containing trial-unique pictures. On interference trial...

In the companion article (Hampson et al., 1998), the ampakine CX516 (Cortex Pharmaceuticals) was shown to produce a marked facilitation of performance of a spatial delayed-nonmatch-to-sample (DNMS) task in rats. Injections of the drug before each daily session produced a marked and progressive improvement in performance at longer delays (>5 sec) that persisted for 7 d after drug treatment was t...

Oxytocin is important to social behavior and emotion regulation in humans. Oxytocin's role derives in part from its effect on memory performance. More specifically, previous research suggests that oxytocin facilitates recognition of social (e.g., faces), but not of non-social stimuli (e.g., words, visual objects). We conducted the first within-subject study to this hypothesis in a double-blind,...

The ability to switch between multiple tasks is central to flexible behavior. Although switching between tasks is readily accomplished, a well established consequence of task switching (TS) is behavioral slowing. The source of this switch cost and the contribution of cognitive control to its resolution remain highly controversial. Here, we tested whether proactive interference arising from memo...

The ability to mitigate interference is of central importance to cognition. Previous research has provided conflicting accounts about whether operations that resolve interference are singular in character or form a family of functions. Here, the authors examined the relationship between interference-resolution processes acting on working memory representations versus responses. The authors comb...

In a series of three experiments, encoding distinctiveness in a release from proactive inhibition paradigm was investigated as a function of dogmatism. Significant differences in release from proactive inhibition between high and low dogmatic individuals were found for shifts within meaning dimensions (from one end of a dimension to the other end) but not for shifts between different dimensions...