For the past five years, you have used the same four-digit PIN for your debit card. After receiving a new card, you are required to set a new PIN. For the first few days, you find yourself repeatedly entering your old PIN by mistake when trying to use the new card. This difficulty in remembering the new PIN is a clear example of:

Proactive interference occurs when previously learned information interferes with the ability to learn new information. Keppel and Underwood (1962) demonstrated that proactive interference affects short-term memory retention by examining the initial trials of the trigram task.

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The retention of information in short-term memory is influenced by two factors: memory trace decay and interference.

Factors Affecting Short-Term Memory Retention

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

During memory trace decay, a memory trace becomes less activated as time passes, which ultimately results in the information being forgotten from short-term memory.

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