Wakeful rest alleviates interference-based forgetting

Abstract

Retroactive interference -the disruptive influence of events occurring after the formation of a new memory -is one of the primary causes of forgetting. Placing individuals within an environment that postpones interference should therefore greatly reduce the likelihood of information being lost from memory. For example, a short period of wakeful rest should diminish interference-based forgetting. To test this hypothesis, participants took part in a foreign language learning activity and were shown English translations of 20 Icelandic words for immediate recall. Half of the participants were then given an 8 min rest before completing a similar or dissimilar interfering distractor task. The other half did not receive a rest until after the distractor task, at which point interference had already taken place. All participants were then asked to translate the Icelandic words for a second time. Results revealed that retention was significantly worse at the second recall test, but being allowed a brief rest before completing the distractor task helped reduce the amount of forgetting. Taking a short, passive break can shield new memories from retroactive interference and alleviate forgetting.

The Effect of Post-Learning Wakeful Rest on the Retention of Second Language Learning Material over the Long Term

“…These findings stand in contrast to a number of previous studies investigating the resting effect under different experimental conditions (Brokaw et al 2016;Cowan et al 2004;Craig et al 2014Craig et al , 2015Della Sala et al 2005;Dewar et al 2009Dewar et al , 2012aMercer 2015), but support the results of recent studies, which showed that resting is no prerequisite for successful memory consolidation (e.g. Varma et al 2017).…”

“…Furthermore, it could be argued that a resting period of 8 min was too short. We assume that 8 min are adequate to detect an existing effect, since various studies found the resting effect over shorter (minutes to hours) and longer retention intervals (days) with varying post-learning resting periods between 8 to 12 min (Brokaw et al 2016;Craig et al 2014;Dewar et al 2012a, b;Mercer 2015). Furthermore, results of Dewar et al (2009) indicate that the first minutes after learning seem to be crucial for a memory supporting effect of resting.…”

“…minutes (e.g. Brokaw et al 2016;Mercer 2015). Long-term effects (several days) of resting were found in healthy elderly adults who learned (Dewar et al 2012a), and in younger adults who were required to memorize spatial associative and temporal order information (Craig et al 2015).…”

“…The resting effect was replicated several times with different (i) populations (Alber et al 2014;Cowan et al 2004;Dewar et al 2009Dewar et al , 2012a, (ii) post-learning activities (Craig et al 2014;Mercer 2015), (iii) study materials (Craig et al 2015(Craig et al , 2016Dewar et al 2012a), and (iv) temporal intervals between immediate and delayed recall tests (Brokaw et al 2016;Cowan et al 2004;Dewar et al 2012a). However, emerging evidence suggests that resting may not always be associated with beneficial effects in terms of memory retention with relevant studies showing similar memory performances over time in rest and distractor conditions (e.g.…”

Time manages interference in visual short-term memory

“…During an unfilled time interval, memory consolidation can be defined as an active process that works to strengthen a new memory trace so that it can be successfully retrieved at a later point in time (Dewar, Alber, Cowan & Della Sala, 2014;Mercer, 2015). Arguably, visual memoranda suffer from rapid time based decay if there is reduced opportunity for engaging in a consolidation process (Knöchel et al, 2015); as a result, the memory trace is more vulnerable to interference or overwriting from succeeding items (Nieuwenstein & Wyble, 2014, offer a recent test of so-called short-term TIME MANAGES INTERFERENCE 26 consolidation).…”