PHONIC INTERFERENCE AND PREFIX EFFECT

Forty-two Ss recalled 90 series of 8 consonant letters, 30 under control conditions and 60 under each of two prefix conditions. The prefix letter was either V or K. In each 8-letter series half of the letters were phonically similar to V (from the subset BDGTPZ) and half were not (from the subset HJLNRX). An account of the prefix effect based on retroactive inhibition predicts that (a) V as prefix should disrupt recall more than K, and (b) the difference between prefix effects of V and K should be larger in performance on the BDGTPZ subset than on the JHLNRX subset. Both predictions were supported by the results. © 1969 Academic Press, Inc. All rights reserved.