Repetition and recall in an incidental-memory paradigm.

Conducted 2 experiments with a total of 120 college students. In Exp I, Ss given incidental-memory instructions free-recalled object phrases presented twice at lags of 0, 5, 10, and 20 intervening events. Repetition of an object phrase in the same sentence produced a massed-distributed effect which was eliminated when the object phrase was presented in 2 different sentences. In Exp II the repetition of an object phrase in the same sentence again produced a massed-distributed difference. A distributed-lag effect was found when Ss were instructed to either produce the same completion to both occurrences of a repeated sentence or to generate a new completion for the second occurrence. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cued recall and free recall as a function of the number of items per cue.

Tested the generality of M. Earhard's (see record 1967-13073-001) findings that (a) the number of items/cue determines the rate of cued-recall learning, and (b) free-recall Ss perform as well as cued Ss under the conditions of 6 or 8 items/cue. Categorized materials consisting of English nouns were given to a total of 135 undergraduates in 2 free-recall and 7 cued-recall conditions. Differences were obtained between cued-recall Ss who had 6 or less and 8 or more items/cue. Free-recall Ss performed as well as 6.6 items/cue, which exactly replicates Earhard's result with alphabetized word lists. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Irrelevant sound disrupts order information in free recall as in serial recall

The claim that the sensitivity of free recall to disruption by irrelevant sound is a function of the extent to which rote rehearsal is employed as a mnemonic strategy was investigated in two experiments. The degree of disruption by irrelevant sound in terms of both item and order information was contrasted under serial and free recall instructions. Irrelevant sound was found to disrupt order and item information equally in serial and free recall tasks (Experiment 1). Contrary to previous reports, an effect of irrelevant sound was also demonstrated on free recall of particularly long lists, and the interaction between list length and retention interval in the irrelevant sound effect was examined (Experiment 2). Generally, the results support the view that irrelevant sound disrupts the use of order cues.     

Reverse-interference effect in free recall.

D. J. Burns (1989) demonstrated that free recall of second-list response terms was better in an interference (A–B, A–C) condition than in a control (D–B, A–C) condition. This reversal of the traditional interference effect was referred to as the reverse-interference effect. Results from Experiments 2–4 in this article discounted several possible explanations of the reverse-interference effect, and the results from Experiments 5–7 supported a stimulus accessibility account of the reverse-interference effect. That is, when asked for free recall of the response terms, participants covertly retrieved stimulus terms to serve as cues for the responses. The reverse-interference effect reflects the greater accessibility of stimulus terms in the interference condition than in the control condition (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clustering and organization in free recall.

Evaluated various indexes developed to measure clustering and subjective organization and presents 2 intercorrelation matrices among clustering measures and the number of words recalled. The existence of a large negative bias in the correlation between the ratio of repetition measure and theoretical recall was demonstrated. Various issues which have developed from the study of organization in free recall are discussed. (3 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Need for stimulation as a source of stress response to perceptual isolation.

The study was undertaken to see if Ss who had shown a greater stress reaction to perceptual isolation could be shown to have a greater "need" for stimulation than those who were not so stressed by isolation. Ss selected on the basis of their high or low reactions to the prior isolation experiment were tested in a second 3-hr perceptual isolation situation, only this time they were given the opportunity to make an operant response which would produce random visual or auditory stimulation depending on their choice. Those previously stressed by isolation made significantly more responses for visual and auditory reinforcement than the low-stress group. All Ss responded more for visual than for auditory reinforcement. (29 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sources of recency effects in free recall.

Discusses evidence casting doubt on the primary-memory account of the recency effect in recall and reviews an alternate account that attributes recency to the use of temporal or contextual cues. The discussion is presented in the paradigm of free recall. The recency effect refers to the fact that when people memorize a list of words, they tend to recall items at the end of the list more often than those in the middle. Recency effects have often been attributed to output from primary memory, a short-term memory buffer system. Evidence that recency effects can be found in the absence of primary memory (in conditions of concurrent distraction, multicategory lists, interactions of other independent variables with serial position, negative recency effects, and auditory recency) is reviewed. It is concluded that primary-memory theories are no longer adequate accounts for the recency effect. A temporal-contextual theory of the recency effect is discussed as a plausible alternative account, although these accounts are not fully developed or tested. (108 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Context retrieval and context change in free recall: Recalling from long-term memory drives list isolation.

Three experiments used the "list-before-the-last" free recall paradigm (Shiffrin, 1970) to investigate retrieval for context and the manner in which context changes. This paradigm manipulates target and intervening list lengths to measure the interference from each list, providing a measure of list isolation. Correct target list recall was only affected by the target list length when participants engaged in recall between the lists, whereas there were effects of both list lengths with other activities. This suggests that the act of recalling drives context change, thus isolating the target list from interference. Correspondingly, incorrect recall of intervening list items was affected only by the length of the intervening list when recall occurred between the lists, but was otherwise affected by both list lengths. Concurrent with these changes in context similarity, there were apparent changes in context retrieval, as indicated by the overall levels of target retrieval versus intervening recall. A multinomial model of sampling and recovery was implemented to assess the adequacy of this account and to quantify context similarity and context retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Repetition learning in the immediate serial recall of visual and auditory materials.

In 5 experiments, a Hebb repetition effect, that is, improved immediate serial recall of an (unannounced) repeating list, was demonstrated in the immediate serial recall of visual materials, even when use of phonological short-term memory was blocked by concurrent articulation. The learning of a repeatedly presented letter list in one modality (auditory or visual) did not transfer to give improved performance on the same list in the other modality. This result was not replicated for word lists, however, for which asymmetric transfer was observed. Inferences are made about the structure of short-term memory and about the nature of the Hebb repetition effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mnemonic organization and free recall in schizophrenia.

Investigated word-storage structure and processes of organization and retrieval in 17 young schizophrenics (mean age 26.5 yrs) and 13 normal Ss (mean age 25.7 yrs). Ss were required to establish a stable organization of 25 unrelated words through repeated, self-paced sortings into self-determined categories. Subsequently, they were asked for free recall of the words. The schizophrenics required significantly more trials to complete the sorting task, but once this was achieved they recalled as many words in equally regular order as the normals did. The groups did not differ in regard to organizational structure in the sortings as assessed by hierarchical structure analysis. It is concluded that a schizophrenic deficit of mnemonic organization is indicated, possibly due to difficulties in maintaining a stable system of categories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Repetition versus luminance as a determinant of recognition.

Studied the effect of repeated brief exposures of single-letter stimuli on 4 normal hearing adults to determine whether the number of repetitions of a stimulus may be varied inversely with its luminance to produce a constant level of recognition performance. This postulated reciprocity relationship was refuted: performance always declined when the luminance was reduced (even though the number of repetitions increased). However, the deviation from reciprocity was small for stimuli at or above threshold luminance, and the facilitatory effect of repetition upon recognition was clearly shown for all luminance levels employed. Implications of the findings for models of visual information processing are discussed. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The measurement of subjective organization in free recall.

Presents and discusses alternative measures of subjective organization. Various criteria for choosing among measures are compared, and 4 psychometric criteria are proposed: quantification, reliability, construct validity, and empirical validity. It is demonstrated that with respect to these criteria, the bidirectional form of intertrial repetition, here referred to as pair frequency, is the last measure of subjective organization now available. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Serial organization and prior free recall.

Assessed serial recall and organization of a list after different levels of prior free-recall learning with the same list. Performance was expected to be impaired as a direct function of amount of free recall because of inappropriate organizational units formed during free recall. Recall on serial trials following 15 free-recall trials was inferior to 5 or 10 prior free-recall trials. 4 groups of 24 Ss each were tested. Serial organization on the 1st serial trial was inferior if prior free recall occurred, but did not vary with the amount of free recall. These results, and those of part-whole and whole-part free-recall transfer studies, were interpreted by a component analysis of free recall, including response learning/unlearning and organizational learning/unlearning. (16 ref.) (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unmixing effects of spacing on free recall.

In 3 unmixed-list free-recall experiments, total recall was as high for lists that contained massed repetitions as for those containing spaced repetitions. This finding and differences between spaced and massed lists in the pattern of recall (notably serial position differences) indicate that displaced rehearsal (review of earlier list items) was more prevalent during study of the massed lists. These results imply that displaced rehearsal has a large role in producing the free-recall advantage typically observed for spaced compared with massed items in mixed lists and that unmixed-list designs generally are to be preferred for spacing experiments. They also imply that intentional free-recall experiments are not instructive concerning effects of spaced vs massed study, because rehearsal strategies for free recall result in the spaced study of massed items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lag invariance with forced encodings in free recall.

Describes an experiment in which 144 undergraduates read 28 sentences, each 6 words in length. The last word was a homograph for which either of 2 meanings could be biased by the context of the sentence. 6 of the homographs appeared twice, with 1, 6, or 11 sentences intervening between the 1st and 2nd presentation. For 72 of the Ss, the same meaning was biased on both occasions (condition SC), while the remaining Ss were given 2 different meanings (condition DC). In free recall of the homographs, probability of recall was an increasing function of the number of intervening sentences (lag) for condition SC, whereas this function was invariant with lag for condition DC. For both conditions, the probability of an early output of a homograph was also an increasing function of lag. Findings are interpreted within an encoding variability framework. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temporal associations and prior-list intrusions in free recall.

When asked to recall the words from a just-presented target list, subjects occasionally recall words that were not on the list. These intrusions either appeared on earlier lists (prior-list intrusions, or PLIs) or had not appeared over the course of the experiment (extra-list intrusions). The authors examined the factors that elicit PLIs in free recall. A reanalysis of earlier studies revealed that PLIs tend to come from semantic associates as well as from recently studied lists, with the rate of PLIs decreasing sharply with list recency. The authors report 3 new experiments in which some items in a given list also appeared on earlier lists. Although repetition enhanced recall of list items, subjects were significantly more likely to make PLIs following the recall of repeated items, suggesting that temporal associations formed in earlier lists can induce recall errors. The authors interpret this finding as evidence for the interacting roles of associative and contextual retrieval processes in recall. Although contextual information helps to focus recall on words in the target list, it does not form an impermeable boundary between current- and prior-list experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in free recall and subjective organization.

Previous studies concerned with subjective organization occurring during free-recall learning have not provided consistent evidence for a hypothesis of organizational deficiency in the elderly. To assess the role of recall conditions in this discrepancy, the free-recall learning of younger and older adults was examined under conditions where the recalled words were either visible or not visible. Also, 5 measures of subjective organization, including measures used in earlier studies, were used to assess the role of measurement factors in producing the inconsistent findings. Younger adults, regardless of recall condition, recalled more words and showed more subjective organization than did the older adults with each of the measures. List length, rather than type of recall trial or measure of subjective organization, seems to be responsible for the conflicting findings obtained by other investigators. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential roles of frequency and meaningfulness in free recall.

Performed 2 experiments with 91 experimentally naive high school students to study the comparative influence of frequency and meaningfulness (m) on free recall. In Exp. I, the free-recall scores of 3 lists of words matched for m but varying in frequency levels were compared. In Exp. II, free recall of 3 lists of words matched for their frequency but varying in their m values were compared. Findings reveal that it is the frequency and not m of the words that influences free-recall, and that the influence of frequency is noticeable in the early trials of free-recall learning. Findings are discussed in terms of the existing theories of verbal learning. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)