Influences of delayed distraction on the modality effect in free recall.

The free recall recency items is better following lists presented auditorily rather than visually. This modality effect was eliminated by a 30-second, but not a three-second, period of auditory distraction delayed by 15 seconds following list presentation. It is argued that these findings are entirely consistent with the notion that the modality effect in free recall arises from the direct use of persistent modality-specific information, and not from the use of acoustic information which has been recoded into modality-independent memory.