Reducing retroactive interference through recoding

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of a recoding cue on retroactive interference experienced by grade 2 and grade 4 children. Children in the control condition learned one list of foods, while children in the experimental conditions learned two lists of foods. All children were asked to recall the first (or only) list learned 24 hours later in a free recall manner. Children in the retroactive interference/recoding conditions were informed of a perceptual recoding cue (that all the foods in the second list were green in colour) either after acquisition or just prior to the long-term retention test. The results indicated that 1) children in the recoding conditions experienced less retroactive interference than uninformed children 2) both the younger and older children benefitted from the recoding cue regardless of time of instruction, and 3) the effects of the recoding cue were located primarily at storage. The perceptual recoding cue allowed the children to reorganize their memories and maintain them as two distinct sets of information.