Reactivation-induced interference in a short-term retention paradigm

Abstract

In Experiment 1 it was demonstrated that interference with a rat's retention of a target spatial cue decreases as the interval between prior conflicting cues and the target increases. Experiment 2 showed that interference can occur even when the interstimulus interval is long, if the memory of a conflicting cue is reactivated just prior to exposing an animal to the target cue. A third experiment suggested that these findings could not be easily interpreted in terms of a stimulus satiation effect. The implications of these findings for a trace decay model of short-term retention were discussed.