DIGITAL AND KINESTHETIC MEMORY WITH INTERPOLATED INFORMATION PROCESSING

Conducted 4 experiments on the effects of interpolated activity on retention of digits and of specific kinesthetic events. Exp. I replicated M. I. Posner and E. Rossman's finding (see 40:2) that short-term forgetting of digits is an increasing function of the size of the information-reducing transform in the interpolated task. Exp. II confirmed M. I. Posner and A. F. Konick's finding (see 41:1) that short-term memory for a specific kinesthetic event does not depend on digital information-processing capacity available during the retention interval. Exp III showed that kinesthetic recall can be interfered with by interpolated kinesthetic acitvity; and in Exp. IV, kinesthetic activity interfered with the recall of digits only when the interpolated task involved an information transform of the condensation type. It was concluded that as with short-term memory for verbal responses, kinesthetic recall is subject to interference, but that the 2 types of retention may be differentially sensitive to similarity and difficulty effects. The evidence is consistent with the view that these 2 memory systems are based on independent neural-behavioral mechanisms. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.