Intervening Tasks and Visuospatial Memory: The Role of Similarity in Retroactive Interference

Verbal tasks are often administered during the Rey-Osterreith Complex Figure Test (ROCFT) delay period in order to minimize retroactive interference resulting from similarity between tests (Meyers & Meyers, 1995 ). However, previous studies showed that similarity between the California Verbal Le...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinical neuropsychologist 2013-07, Vol.27 (5), p.818-826
Main Authors: Morra, L. F., Garcon, S. M., Lucas, M. E., Donovick, P. J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Analysis of Variance
Biological and medical sciences
Complex figure
Discrimination (Psychology) - physiology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Interference
Learning. Memory
Male
Memory
Mental Recall - physiology
Neuropsychological Tests
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Ray Osterreith
Reactive Inhibition
Retroactive
Sex Factors
Space Perception - physiology
Time Factors
Verbal Learning - physiology
Young Adult
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Summary:Verbal tasks are often administered during the Rey-Osterreith Complex Figure Test (ROCFT) delay period in order to minimize retroactive interference resulting from similarity between tests (Meyers & Meyers, 1995 ). However, previous studies showed that similarity between the California Verbal Learning Test-II (CVLT-II) and intervening tasks administered during the delay period did not affect memory performance on the CVLT-II. In the current study we examined whether intervening tasks similar to the ROCFT would increase retroactive interference compared to dissimilar tasks, thereby negatively impacting visuospatial memory performance. A total of 106 undergraduate students were divided into three groups. Each group completed different intervening tasks during the ROCFT delay interval. Groups did not differ on copy, immediate recall, and delayed recall trials of the ROCFT. However, a repeated-measures ANOVA revealed an interaction between group and trial (p < .001), suggesting group performance on the ROCFT was differentially impacted by the intervening task. Planned comparisons indicated that the group completing two similar non-verbal intervening tasks had poorer memory of the complex figure and performed significantly worse on recognition (p = .003) and percent retention (p < .001) trials, respectively. This suggests that similarity of intervening tasks impacts memory performance on a complex figure test.
ISSN:1385-4046
1744-4144
DOI:10.1080/13854046.2013.799233