30 UNDERGRADUATES LISTENED TO A LIST OF 9 LETTERS PRESENTED AT THE RATE OF 4 LETTERS/SEC AND THEN ATTEMPTED TO RECALL THE LETTERS IN ORDER. SOME LISTS CONTAINED REPEATED LETTERS, AND SOME DID NOT. THE LETTERS FOLLOWING REPEATED LETTERS TENDED TO BE SUBSTITUTED FOR EACH OTHER IN RECALL, BY COMPARISON TO THE FREQUENCY OF CONFUSING LETTERS IN THE SAME POSITIONS OF LISTS WITHOUT REPEATED LETTERS. SUCH SUBSTITUTIONS WERE CALLED "ASSOCIATIVE INTRUSIONS," AND THE ASSOCIATIVE-INTRUSION PHENOMENON WAS OBSERVED WHETHER THE REPEATED LETTERS OCCURRED AT THE BEGINNING OR THE MIDDLE OF THE LIST, WHETHER 1 OR 2 ITEMS SEPARATED THE REPEATED LETTERS, AND WHETHER THE ITEMS FOLLOWING THE REPEATED ITEMS DID OR DID NOT HAVE A VOWEL PHONEME IN COMMON. THE RESULTS ARE INTERPRETED AS SUPPORTING AN ASSOCIATIVE THEORY OF SHORT-TERM MEMORY. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)