Summary: Early studies in which it was found that learning followed by sleep was better remembered than learning followed by wakefulness were interpreted as giving support for the Interference Theory of Forgetting. More recent studies have shown better retention over the first half of the night's sleep (slow-wave sleep) than over the second half (REM sleep), and conclusions have been drawn that a Decay Theory of Forgetting is more strongly supported. Those studies, however, confounded the type of sleep following learning with sleep prior to learning. When prior sleep was controlled in the present study, there was no support for a first half-night sleep benefit, and, contrary to Decay Theory, there was a second half-night benefit for high imagery material. The strong detrimental effect of sleep prior to learning was inconsistent with the Interference Theory of Forgetting and suggested, instead, the importance of the consolidation process for long-term memory. Key Words: Sleep stages-Long-term memory-Forgetting theories-Memory consolidation.In the present study we examined several variables which have, in the past, been shown to mediate the effects of sleep on memory. These are the post-learning condition (sleep or wakefulness), prior learning condition (sleep or wakefulness), physiological arousal, length of the retention interval, and type of material learned.Jenkins and Dallenbach (1) discovered that subjects who slept following learning remembered more than subjects who were awake for the same length of time. They used this finding as support for the Interference Theory of Forgetting, since it was assumed that interference learning would be reduced during sleep. Although the beneficial effect of sleep on memory has subsequently been confirmed (2-4), the effect of other variables on memory has raised some doubt regarding the Interference Theory. The finding that sleep is most beneficial to memory when it follows learning immediately rather than later (5-7) seems to implicate differential effects on a consolidation process of memory. Studies that have manipulated the level of arousal directly (8,9)
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