Interference effects in short-term memory as a function of input modality and the linguistic relationship between learned lists

Among 128 Ss, spoken lists of words produced greater pro- & retroactive interference than did visually presented words. When presentation modality of the interference list differed from that of the list to be recalled, interference effects were less pronounced than when the lists were presented to the same modality. When the presentation of material shifted from vision to hearing, there was more retroaction & less proaction than when the shift occurred in the opposite direction. Proactive release occurred with a shift from visual to auditory presentation, but not with the opposite shift. Degree of interference was no greater when the interference material was either semantically or phonetically related to the list to be recalled than when the two lists were totally unrelated. 2 Figures. HA