ABSTRACT
In a classic paper, McGeoch (1932) presented cogent arguments and evidence against the prevailing view, attributed to Thorndike (1913), that forgetting was primarily or entirely a consequence of decay of a memory “ trace” with disuse. He reasoned that time elapsed subsequent to learning played no causative role but was normally required to permit the factors that produced forgetting to take effect. The two factors that McGeoch specified were: (1) interference by compet ing memories (most particularly retroactive interference); and (2) altered stimulating conditions (by which he meant internal and external contextual stimuli). The research reported in this chapter is concerned with these two factors and with the ways in which they interact. Thus it follows in a time-honored tradition of research on memory.
