Can Unlearning Be Undone? Tests of the Inhibition Hypothesis
The inhibition hypothesis of unlearning suggests that A-B recall might be facilitated after A-C learning if A-C were inhibited by a third list. The first experiment showed that while A-C can be interfered with by a C-C'r list, A-B retention loss increased, contrary to prediction. A second experiment varied the A-C inhibition task without effect on A-B recall. However, in a third experiment, data consistent with the inhibition hypothesis were obtained when the B items were from a different response class than all the other items on the A-C and C-C'r lists.