Imagine a world in which people best remembered items in the middle of a list, rather than those at the beginning or end. Could proactive and/or retroactive interference explain such a pattern of forgetting? Why or why not?
What will be an ideal response?
The serial-position curve represents the probability of recall of a given word, given its serial position (order of presentation) in a list. The recency effect refers to superior recall of words at and near the end of a list. The primacy effect refers to superior recall of words at and near the beginning of a list. The serial-position curve makes sense in terms of interference theory. Words at the end of the list are subject to proactive but not to retroactive interference. Words at the beginning of the list are subject to retroactive but not to proactive interference. Words in the middle are subject to both types. Thus as long as proactive and retroactive interference both exist and can overlap, they cannot be used to account for a situation in which middle-list recall was the best.
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