A comparison was made of short- and long-term visual and auditory memory in relation to visual and auditory interference. The questions investigated were: (1) will interference be greater when it occurs in the same modality (auditory or visual) in which it was learned (i.e., similarity hypothesis), or (2) will interference be greater when it occurs in one specific channel (auditory or visual) regardless of the channel in which it was learned (i.e., channel specificity hypothesis)? Fifty boys and 50 girls, all 6 years old, were randomly assigned to one of two control groups or one of eight experimental groups; each group with the same number of boys as girls. Experimental group subjects learned an original seven-item serial task. Four of the groups had the items presented visually; four, auditorially. These groups were further subdivided on the basis of the nature of the interference task (i.e., either auditory or visual, and either four items or seven items). Control groups had no interference task. All groups were tested for short-term memory and 7 days later, for long-term memory. Results supported neither of the hypotheses, but indicate that auditory interference leads to a significantly greater decrement in serial order recall than visual interference. (MH)