Intralist Distractors and Recall Direction: Constraints on Models of Memory for Serial Order

The serial-order version of the theory of distributed associative memory (TODAM; S. Lewandowsky & B.B. Murdock, 1989) predicts that disruption of forward serial recall should leave backward recall largely unaffected. This article reports 4 experiments in which the effects of an intralist distractor task were compared for forward and backward serial recall. Regardless of whether subjects could anticipate recall direction at study, the distractor task was found to disrupt forward but not backward recall. Although the existence of that dissociation had been predicted by TODAM, the theory was unable to provide a quantiative account of the data. Instead we provide a retrieval-based account within the framework of temporal distinctiveness theory.