Interference with real world knowledge

Two experiments are described in which subjects studied made-up, fantasy facts about well-known persons and then were asked to verify actual facts about these persons. Reaction time to the actual facts was longer the more fantasy propositions studied about a person. Reaction time was also longer whe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cognitive psychology 1976-01, Vol.8 (3), p.311-335
Main Authors: Lewis, Clayton H, Anderson, John R
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Two experiments are described in which subjects studied made-up, fantasy facts about well-known persons and then were asked to verify actual facts about these persons. Reaction time to the actual facts was longer the more fantasy propositions studied about a person. Reaction time was also longer when the verification test involved a mixture of actual and fantasy facts rather than just actual facts. A mathematical version of the ACT model ( Anderson, 1976) was fit to the data. It provides a satisfactory fit, better than an alternate model. However, some of the parameter values estimated for the ACT model seemed unreasonable.
ISSN:0010-0285
1095-5623
DOI:10.1016/0010-0285(76)90010-4