Non-verbal inhibitory control of proactive interference in a probe-recognition task

Abstract

The present study investigated nonverbal inhibitory control of proactive interference in normal individuals using a probe-recognition task. Visual stimuli consisted of 130 abstract figures selected or modified from the Aggie Figure Learning Test (Majdan, Sziklas, & Jones-Gotman, 1996). The performance of 34 undergraduate participants showed a significant visual similarity interference effect, indicated by prolonged response times and reduced accuracy rates, only when the target probe was related to an item in the negative same list condition but not in the negative previous list condition. This implied that the effect of non-verbal proactive interference affected items that were relevant, in the same trial, and did not extend to items that were no longer relevant, in the following trial. The present findings suggest evidence for an inhibitory control process being carried out to prevent cross-trial visual similarity interference. Possible modifications to the negative same list condition for improving test validity are discussed.