| Abstract: | A puzzling finding in memory research is that part–set cuing, or the presentation of some of the to-be-recalled items as cues, impairs recall of the remaining items. In this article a series of four experiments involving nonmemory tasks extends this finding to other cognitive domains. Specifically, it is shown that providing possible responses impairs the production of other responses when words are constructed from the letters of a lengthy word (Experiment 1), when differences between almost identical pairs of pictures are discovered (Experiment 2), when blurred pictures brought gradually into focus are identified (Experiment 3), and when nonsense figures are likened to meaningful objects or scenes (Experiment 4). These findings suggest that the part–set cuing effect in memory may be only one instantiation of a much broader phenomenon. And such a perspective might elicit a more satisfactory explanation of this puzzling effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
