Renewal effects in interference between outcomes as measured by a cued response reaction time task: further evidence for associative retrieval models.

Abstract

Two experiments demonstrated renewal effects in interference between outcomes in human participants. Experiment 1 revealed a XYX renewal effect, whereas Experiment 2 showed a XYZ renewal effect. The results from both experiments conformed to Bouton's (1993) theory of interference and recovery from interference, and contradicted the predictions derived from alternative accounts. Unlike previous demonstration of renewal effects, a cued response reaction time (RT) task was used, able to detect the effects of fast retrieval processes based on associative activation and that allowed little impact of inferential reasoning.