Stimulus repetition and encoding facilitation: Locus of the effect.

20 undergraduates were familiarized on patterns representing certain transformations of a prototype prior to a choice RT test to old (same) and new (different) patterns. Analysis of criteria for making same–different judgments indicated that Ss' remembrance was characterized by a knowledge structure based on the prototype and its transformations, rather than a list of the patterns to which Ss had been exposed. Same responses made to patterns highly congruent with the knowledge structure were found to be faster than different responses made to less congruent patterns. In contrast, speed of same responses to familiarized stimuli and different responses to novel stimuli did not differ. Findings suggest that encoding facilitation due to stimulus repetition is based on the information acquired from the familiarized stimuli rather than on the familiarized stimuli themselves. (French abstract) (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)