A distinction has always been made between long-term and short-term memory (also now called working memory, WM). The obvious difference between these two kinds of memory concerns the duration of information storage: information is supposedly transiently stored in WM while it is considered durably consolidated into long-term memory. It is well acknowledged that the content of WM is erased and re...

Proactive interference (PI), in which irrelevant information from prior learning disrupts memory performance, is widely viewed as a major cause of forgetting. However, the hypothesized spontaneous recovery (i.e., automatic retrieval) of interfering information presumed to be at the base of PI remains to be demonstrated directly. Moreover, it remains unclear at what point during learning and/or ...

We examined the role of dual-task interference in working memory using a novel dual two-back task that requires a redundant-target response (i.e., a response that neither the auditory nor the visual stimulus occurred two back versus a response that one or both occurred two back) on every trial. Comparisons with performance on single two-back trials (i.e., with only auditory or only visual stimu...

Memory of a past experience can interfere with processing during a subsequent experience, a phenomenon termed proactive interference (PI). Neuroimaging and neuropsychological evidence implicate the left mid-ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (mid-VLPFC) in PI resolution during short-term item recognition, though the precise mechanisms await specification. The present functional magnetic resonance ...

Learning often affects future learning and memory for previously learned information by exerting either facilitation or interference effects. Several theoretical accounts of interference effects have been proposed, each making different developmental predictions. This research examines interference effects across development, with the goal of better understanding mechanisms of interference and ...

Testing initially learned information before presenting new information has been shown to counteract the deleterious effects of proactive interference by segregating competing sources of information. The present experiments were conducted to demonstrate that testing can also have its effects in part by integrating competing information. Variations of classic A-B, A-D paired-associate learning p...

Many state-of-the-art selectivity estimation methods use query feedback to maintain histogram buckets, thereby using the limited memory efficiently. However, they are “reactive” in nature, that is, they update the histogram based on queries that have come to the system in the past for evaluation. In some applications, future occurrences of certain queries may be predicted and a “proactive” appr...

Recent theories have suggested that resistance to interference is a unifying principle of executive function and that individual differences in interference may be explained by executive function (M. J. Kane & R. W. Engle, 2002). Measures of executive function, memory, and perceptual speed were obtained from 121 older adults (ages 63-82). We used structural equation modeling to investigate the ...

OBJECTIVES This article describes the development, content, feasibility and first results of a short educational program for preparing for aging, based on the process model of proactive coping. The aim of the program is to increase proactive competencies and improve proactive orientations and behaviour. The program consists of four-weekly meetings with 8-10 participants and is given by trainers...

Purpose – This paper sets out to examine proactive personality in relation to job demands, job resources and engagement. Design/methodology/approach – The current study employed a two-wave complete panel study among 794 Dutch government employees. Based upon the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, previous studies, job crafting theories, and Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, hypotheses on...