Paula Trotter Hertel

Three retroactive interference experiments investigated issues regarding the nature of memory representations for passage information. One approach to passage memory has been to assume that passage theme or gist is stored separately from lower-order representations of passage elements. Another view portrays passage information as stored in an integrated fashion.

Abstract Sensible, interrelated sentences were presented with or without bizarre sentences which could be transformed to fit the context of the sensible sentences. Two experiments examined subjects' ability to recognize or recall both types of sentences, either immediately or after two weeks. For most subjects, representations of the bizarre were available at immediate testing only.