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Results of Experiment 3 in terms of the raw performance in the Unique Condition (a) and the relative Cost of PI (b). While performance in the Unique Condition was better when items were presented at the center of the screen than when they were spatially distributed, the Cost of PI was relatively unaffected by these spatial manipulations
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Our ability to briefly retain information is often limited. Proactive Interference (PI) might contribute to these limitations (e.g., when items in recognition tests are difficult to reject after having appeared recently). In visual Working Memory (WM), spatial information might protect WM against PI, especially if encoding items together with their...
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Context 1
... shown in Fig. 7 and Table 7, memory performance in the Unique Condition was better when items were presented at the center of the screen compared to the two conditions where they were spatially distributed, with no difference between the latter two conditions. In contrast, the Cost of PI was not affected by the Location Condition manipulation at all. ...
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Modulated signal recognition and classification occupies an important position in electronic information warfare, intelligent wireless communication, and fast modulation and demodulation. To address the shortcomings of existing recognition methods, such as high manual involvement, few recognition types, and a low recognition rate under a low signal...
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... This enables our students to store item-location combinations, giving them spatial cues for memory items in addition to the semantic cues. With practice, they can potentially bind all items together in a configuration and reduce proactive interference-when older memories interfere with the retrieval of newer, similar information-for other recently studied items [62]. Location and gaze direction can be an additional cue to memories when multiple memories compete [62][63][64]. ...
... With practice, they can potentially bind all items together in a configuration and reduce proactive interference-when older memories interfere with the retrieval of newer, similar information-for other recently studied items [62]. Location and gaze direction can be an additional cue to memories when multiple memories compete [62][63][64]. We are better at remembering information when it is consistently presented in the same location [65], with the benefit coming from the spatial structure [64]. ...
Students and educators often face time constraints, making it essential to develop interventions that are both easy to implement and have a substantial impact on learning and performance. One promising strategy is retrieval practice, particularly in the context of physics education, where many students struggle with basic knowledge. Prior research has shown that retrieval practice improves self-explanation and problem-solving performance, yet many students avoid it, even when resources are provided. To address this, we introduced a mandatory retrieval test with a minimum benchmark of 50% to encourage greater engagement with retrieval practice. The primary aim of this study was to explore students’ experiences with the test and its impact on their use of retrieval practice. A secondary aim was to examine whether increased retrieval practice effort correlated with improved performance on factual, conceptual, and problem-solving exams. Interviews with 13 students revealed that about half crammed for the test, while the other half spaced their practice throughout the semester. Several students noted that the test motivated them to both memorize and understand the principles, with no complaints about the mandatory test. Of the 463 students, 179 achieved a perfect score, suggesting substantial engagement. Effect sizes on factual, conceptual, and problem-solving performance tests ranged from negligible to large, indicating substantial potential benefits with minimal risk. In conclusion, the mandatory retrieval test is an effective, low-effort intervention for educators, promoting greater student adoption of retrieval practice and yielding both qualitative and quantitative evidence of enhanced learning and performance.
Published by the American Physical Society 2025
... While some studies have disputed the size of the PI effect in traditional change detection paradigms (Balaban et al., 2019;P.-H. Lin & Luck, 2012), others have provided robust evidence that visual working memory (VWM) is affected by PI (Endress, 2022;Endress & Potter, 2014;Makovski, 2016). For example, Endress and Potter (2014) showed participants a series of real-world objects (at the same location) and then asked them to judge whether a probe object had been present in the series. ...
... Participants could remember up to 30 items in the absence of PI, but the presence of PI reduced capacity to the typical three-to four-item limit (Cowan, 2001). A recent series of experiments by Endress (2022) and studies from our own group (Donenfeld et al., under review) have shown that the effects of PI in VWM are not entirely location-dependent. Thus, in adults, PI has been well established as a fundamental limitation of VWM. ...
Public Significance Statement
Performing tasks requires the constant updating of working memory (WM), which is especially challenging when previously relevant memories interfere with current ones (“Did I add a teaspoon of salt already, or was that the baking powder?”). In adults, this proactive interference (PI) has been well established as a fundamental limitation of memory performance. Characterizing PI in early childhood has three potential impacts. First, it can inform theoretical models of WM and its development. Second, it can lead to applied insights, such as a better understanding of children’s learning in the classroom. Lastly, it has important methodological impacts. WM capacity is typically measured by presenting a series of trials with similar, or repeated, stimuli—a practice that promotes PI and may lower performance. Without updating paradigms to account for, or avoid, this interference, we may be systematically underestimating children’s WM capacity.
... Endress and Potter estimated that the capacity of VWM was greatly reduced in the repeating compared to unique condition, potentially due to stronger PI in the former condition. This effect has been broadly replicated (e.g., Endress, 2022;Endress & Siddique, 2016;Shoval et al., 2020;Shoval & Makovski, 2021, 2022, though Shoval et al. found that PI was much stronger with a heterogeneous rather than homogenous set of stimuli (and in their fourth experiment, PI was absent in the homogenous condition), while Shoval and Makovski (2022) reported stronger PI for meaningful, rather than meaningless, stimuli. Other studies, using the canonical change detection task, have suggested a limited impact of item-nonspecific PI on VWM capacity (e.g., Balaban et al., 2019;Lin & Luck, 2012). ...
... Endress and Potter estimated that the capacity of VWM was greatly reduced in the repeating compared to unique condition, potentially due to stronger PI in the former condition. This effect has been broadly replicated (e.g., Endress, 2022;Endress & Siddique, 2016;Shoval et al., 2020;Shoval & Makovski, 2021, 2022, though Shoval et al. found that PI was much stronger with a heterogeneous rather than homogenous set of stimuli (and in their fourth experiment, PI was absent in the homogenous condition), while Shoval and Makovski (2022) reported stronger PI for meaningful, rather than meaningless, stimuli. Other studies, using the canonical change detection task, have suggested a limited impact of item-nonspecific PI on VWM capacity (e.g., Balaban et al., 2019;Lin & Luck, 2012). ...
While visual working memory has a short lifetime, residual representations can persist and disrupt currently maintained information. This phenomenon is known as proactive interference (PI), and the present study investigated whether the representations underpinning item-specific PI lose details over time. This would be expected if the memories underlying PI are susceptible to temporal processes such as decay, which is strongly disputed. In four experiments, a modified version of the recent probes task was used, requiring participants to determine whether a probe matched one of two recently presented targets. The probe sometimes matched an untested target from a previous trial, or varied in its resemblance to it, and the amount of time separating trials varied. Results revealed that PI was specific and highly disruptive at very short intervals, but its effect diminished over time. At longer intervals, a milder form of PI was present and produced by probes that were only similar to a recently encountered target. In summary, residual visual representations may remain accurate for a few seconds after encoding, before losing precise details and continuing to endure in an inexact state.
... However, it has been hypothesised that visual details are quickly forgotten after they have been seen (Conci et al., 2021;Melcher, 2001). Therefore, the main purpose of this experiment was to show that cumulative memory build-up permits the same number of objects to be remembered, regardless of whether they are viewed in a series of short, distinct presentations spaced several minutes apart or as a single continuous presentation with the same duration (Bates & Jacobs, 2020;Endress, 2021;Melcher, 2001;Woolcott, 2020). The findings show the progress of the visual memory of the participants which increases when participants are allowed repeated viewings of the advertisement. ...
In the modern era, marketers focus more on digital channels, although online marketing efforts are considered a popular topic (Lynch, 2015). The 360-degree video technology is not a completely new nor a completely old concept as it recently has gained attention (in year 2017) by joining the list of standard video formats (Feng, 2018; Feng, Xie, & Lou, 2019). In 2017, around 86% of businesses had used 360-degree videos as part of their respective marketing campaigns (Feng, Xie, & Lou, 2019). The purpose of this study is to investigate the differential effects of 360-degree and standard video advertisements on consumer visual memory under single and multiple viewing conditions. This study addresses two main research questions, “How do the effects of 360-degree video advertisements on visual memory differ from the effects of standard video advertisements?” and “How do the effects of 360-degree video advertisements on visual memory differ from the effects ofstandard video advertisements, after repeated viewing?” using two studies. Study 1 addresses the first research question and study 2 addresses the second research question.
The data were collected using experimental surveys and interviews with 40 participants and were analysed using a qualitative thematic approach via NVivo QSR software. This study explores consumer visual memory using the theoretical constructs of a theory of social information processing by Wyer (2003)—a social psychology theory that focuses on several aspects in the social cognition stages (Wyer, 2003). The four theoretical constructs of the ‘workspace’ unit were used, which are comprehender, encoder, inference maker and response selector to explore consumer visual memory. In the single viewing condition, a total of 10 main themes are identified under the four categories of visual comprehension, encoding, inference making and response selection. These are colour detection, facial expressions, visuals on locations, visuals on objects, visuals on people, visuals on actions, multi-cultural symbols, behavioural engagement, visuals on product details and visuals on brand details. In the repeated viewing condition, a total of 11 main themes are identified under the four categories of visual comprehension, encoding, inference making and response selection. These are colour detection, facial expressions, plot or storytelling, visuals on locations, visuals on objects, visuals on people, visuals on actions, emotional engagement, behavioural engagement, visuals on product details and product benefits.
The findings of this study are as follows. From a theoretical perspective, the application of a social psychology theory for the advertising sector enables us to gather more insights about the social cognition stages of the human mindset, such as information retrieval, judgement, decision making, goal stimulation, and short- and long-term memory (Wyer, 2003). This study not only explores consumer visual memory of 360-degree video advertisements and standard video advertisements, but also contributes to the theory of social information processing byWyer (2003) by being among the first few comparative study. From a practical perspective, findings of this study provide a solid foundation for advertising firms or agencies, marketers, and salespeople on how to arrange visuals in standard and 360-degree video advertisements in a way that appeals to consumer visual memory, by considering the four categories of comprehender, encoder, inference maker and response selector in visual working memory.
Keywords: 360-degree videos, standard videos, qualitative thematic analysis, visual memory,
social information processing, social psychology, advertising
Proactive interference occurs when older memories interfere with current information processing and retrieval. It is often explained with reference to familiarity, where the reappearance of highly familiar items from the recent past produces more disruption than older, less familiar items. However, there are other forms of familiarity beyond recency that may be important, and these were explored in a verbal recent-probes task. Participants viewed eight targets per trial and then determined whether a probe matched any of those targets. Probes matching a target from the previous trial, rather than an earlier trial, led to more errors, revealing proactive interference. However, this effect was influenced by experimental familiarity (whether stimuli were repeated or unique) and pre-experimental familiarity (whether stimuli were meaningful words or meaningless non-words). Specifically, proactive interference was strongest for repeated non-words, and smallest for unique non-words, but stimulus repetition had little impact for words. In addition, the time separating trials (temporal familiarity) was unrelated to proactive interference. The present findings revealed more complex effects of familiarity than have previously been assumed. To understand proactive interference in a working memory task, it is necessary to consider the role of long-term memory via experimental and pre-experimental stimulus familiarity.
Proactive interference (PI) occurs when previously learned information impairs memory for more recently learned information. Most PI studies have employed verbal stimuli, while the role of PI in visual working memory (VWM) has had relatively little attention. In the verbal domain, Johansson and colleagues (2018) found that pupil diameter – a real-time neurophysiological index of cognitive effort – reflects the accumulation and resolution of PI. Here we use a novel, naturalistic paradigm to test the behavioral and pupillary correlates of PI resolution for what-was-where item-location bindings in VWM. Importantly, in our paradigm, trials (PI vs. no-PI condition) are mixed in a block, and participants are naïve to the condition until they are tested. This design sidesteps concerns about differences in encoding strategies or generalized effort differences between conditions. Across three experiments (N = 122 total) we assessed PI’s effect on VWM and whether PI resolution during memory retrieval is associated with greater cognitive effort (as indexed by the phasic, task-evoked pupil response). We found strong support for PI’s detrimental effect on VWM (even with our spatially distributed stimuli), but no consistent link between interference resolution and effort during memory retrieval (this, even though the pupil was a reliable indicator that higher-performing individuals tried harder during memory encoding). We speculate that when explicit strategies are minimized, and PI resolution relies primarily on implicit processing, the effect may not be sufficient to trigger a robust pupillometric response.
This study examines organizational resilience to research and development (R&D) productivity losses following knowledge loss [aka “forgetting”] using a long panel (1970-2007) of data on U.S. biotechnology research. In our model, knowledge and R&D productivity loss may occur through three mechanisms, scientist turnover, interference to knowledge retrieval, and scientist knowledge decay. Our model also proposes three means through which organizations may become resilient to the effects of knowledge loss on R&D productivity. First, managers may compensate for knowledge losses due to turnover by recruitment. Second, the effects of interference to knowledge retrieval due to the use of new technologies may be minimized if new technologies are introduced into organizations by members with little prior experience in using incumbent technologies or by scientists with little prior collaboration experience. Third, scientists may mitigate the effects of knowledge decay by relearning because the reacquisition of previously lost knowledge is easier than learning it was initially. Irrespective of their source, our results suggest that agency plays a role in making an organization resist the negative effects of knowledge loss on its R&D productivity.
