| Abstract: | Ss "reorganize the material so that the recalls differ in sequential properties from those of the original list." When categorized subgroups of words are presented in a random order and Ss in recall put together or cluster such categorized items, the procedure is called category clustering. Associative clustering occurs "when in their recalls the Ss put together in sequence the stimuli and their responses which had been separated at list presentation" (e.g., stimuli such as table and mountain and responses such as chair and hill were presented in random order in word lists to Ss for recall). Results of several investigations are discussed. "When sufficiently prominent, experimenter-provided associational and categorical relations between members of a word pair provide a basis for clustering in free recall alternative to the bases—associational or otherwise—the S will use to effect subjective organization or idiosyncratic pairing. Free recall can tell us something of the way verbal organization is set up but we are largely in the dark as to how this organization acts to bring related items together whatever the basis of their relationship." 14 figures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
