Primary memory

Nancy C. Waugh, Donald A. Norman

Psychological Review, 1965. DOI 10.1037/h0021797

Has this study been replicated?

The atlas records 2 replications of this study. Recorded outcomes: 2 mixed. The earliest on record is from 2020.

Decay or interference accounts of forgetting: A replication of Waugh and Norman's (1965) study, Himi & Ferdous (2022). Cognition, Brain, Behavior. An interdisciplinary journal. Outcome recorded: mixed. The findings of a direct replication effort revealed that recall performance decreased with increasing interfering items, although the pattern of decreased performance did not reflect the original study. Furthermore, the slow pace condition yielded better outcomes than the fast pace compared to decay account. Outcome read from the abstract. View paper
A Replication of Waugh and Norman (1965) Primary Memory study, Poitras et al. (2020). The Quantitative Methods for Psychology. Outcome recorded: mixed. Both studies' results partially support Waugh & Norman's claim, as participants were more likely to recall a digit that was followed by fewer interfering items. Additionally, we observed an interaction involving presentation rate and interference, as participants performed best with a low amount of interfering items presented at 1 item per second. However, lists with a higher number of interfering items (7 and above) had similar correct recall proportion regardless of the… Outcome read from the abstract. View paper

Waugh, N. C., & Norman, D. A. (1965). Primary memory. Psychological Review, 72(2), 89–104. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0021797