You'll see 3 lists of words, one after another. After each list, try to recall just that list. Later lists get harder because earlier ones get in the way — that's proactive interference, and the size of the effect is the cognitive signal.
What makes this one different
Most word-recall tests just give you one list. We plot per-list recall so you can see the proactive-interference curve — a useful pattern in diagnosing attention vs. retrieval issues (loosely).
If list 3 is much worse than list 1, that's classic proactive interference.
No sessions yet.
Verbal memory for unrelated word lists is the canonical short-term-memory task. By showing lists in sequence and measuring per-list recall, we can isolate the role of proactive interference — earlier learning that disrupts later learning — which is one of the most-cited mechanisms in everyday forgetting.
List 1 recall of 70%+ is typical.
List 3 vs List 1 drop is the proactive-interference signal. A drop of 10–20% is normal. A drop of 40%+ may indicate strong interference susceptibility.
No, any order counts. We're measuring recall of the items, not serial order.
Earlier lists compete with later ones for the same memory slots. The more you've stored, the more noise there is when you try to add more.