It is theorized that repetition aids recall and that the learning of new material can interfere with the recall of previously learned material. A professor interested in human learning and memory conducts a 2 _ 3 factorial experiment to investigate the effects of these two variables on recall. The material to be recalled consists of a list of 16 nonsense syllable pairs. The pairs are presented one at a time, for 4 seconds, cycling through the entire list, before the first pair is shown again. There are three levels of repetition: level 1, in which each pair is shown 4 times; level 2,

in which each pair is shown 8 times; and level 3, in which each pair is shown 12 times. After being presented the list the requisite number of times and prior to testing for recall, each subject is required to learn some intervening material. The intervening material is of two types: type 1, which consists of number pairs, and type 2, which consists of nonsense syllable pairs. After the intervening material has been presented, the subjects are tested for recall of the original list of 16 nonsense syllable pairs. Thirty-six college freshmen serve as subjects. They are randomly assigned so that there are six per cell. The following scores are recorded; each is the number of syllable pairs from the original list correctly recalled.

Material (row

variable)

4 times

8 times

12 times

Number pairs 10 11 16 12 16 14 12 15 11 15 16 13 14 10 13 14 15 16

Nonsense 8 7 11 13 14 12