ABSTRACT
The interference theory of memory, proposed in a classic paper by McGeoch (1932) and largely disowned by contemporary researchers in human memory, provides the theoretical framework which guides most long-term memory work with animals. McGeoch argued 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 competing memories (most particularly retroactive interference), and (2) altered stimulating conditions (by which he meant internal and external contextual stimuli). In this chapter we are concerned primarily with explorations of the role of exteroceptive retrieval cues in long-term memory in pigeons, although we consider interference effects as well.
