Reports on two experiments conducted to test the hypothesis that the spacing effect in free recall results from greater semantic-feature variability across distributed repetitions than massed repetition. (AM)

Previous research has shown that concrete concepts are more readily attained than abstract concepts. In the present study this dominance effect was confirmed for verbal materials, even when instances and concepts were equivalent in instance frequency, meaningfulness and conjoint frequency. This effect was especially marked under high memory-load…

Data from the State Trait Anxiety Inventory completed by 74 older adult participants in a memory improvement program revealed state anxiety to be a significant predictor of recall. State anxiety and age were negatively associated with recall; study time and vocabulary were positively associated. (SK)

An adaptive network model is proposed to represent the structure and processing of knowledge. Accessibility of subjects' stored information was measured. Relationships exist among (a) frequency of verifying a test relation, (b) other relations involving concepts used to evaluate test relation, (c) frequency of verifying those relations. (CHK)

This experiment was designed to further investigate how noun imagery as a task variable may supplement the operation of an experimental-frequency mechanism (Ekstrand, Wallace, and Underwood, 1966) in verbal-discrimination learning. (Author)

The purpose of the present experiment was to clarify the nature of retrieving information from Long Term Storage by using forced recall as well as free recall to determine whether further search may lead to retrieval of additional repeated items. (Author/RK)

In two experiments, differences were investigated between youths (mean age 13 years) and comparison groups with respect to (1) performance on paired-associate tasks involving meaningful and nonmeaningful words, (2) reported use of spontaneously produced learning strategies, and (3) degree to which learning strategies facilitated recall. Under…

Results are reported which show that the facilitating effect of recall on recognition is quite substantial. (AM)

THE RESEARCH REPORTED HERE WAS CARRIED OUT TO EVALUATE THE POSSIBILITY THAT IN THE RECALL OF SIMPLE DECLARATIVE SENTENCES THE SUBJECT-NOUNS ARE EASIER TO RECALL THAN THE OBJECT-NOUNS. SUBJECTS (198 UNDERGRADUATES) WERE EXPOSED TO DECLARATIVE SENTENCES THAT VARIED IN ASSOCIATIVE STRENGTH, SENTENCE TYPE (ACTIVE-PASSIVE), AND THE CLASS OF THE…

If a series of verbal units is presented for study, and if a unit occurs two or more times in the series, the practice schedule for these multiple occurrences may be massed or distributed. In massed practice (MP) the item occupies adjacent positions; in distributed practice (DP) successive occurences are separated by at least one other unit. The…

Four experiments are reported which investigate isolation effects in free recall. (RM)

Performance changes during the course of single-trial free recall were investigated in five experiments. (Author/RM)

The effects of delaying an immediate test, a rehearsal opportunity, or a second presentation on long-term free recall were investigated in an experiment combining features of the Brown-Peterson and free-recall paradigms. A proposed model assumes that both repetitions and tests promote learning. (CHK)

Results in Experiment I contradict certain predictions regarding the effect of presentation time on nominal and functional serial-position curves. Experiment II indicates that differences between nominal and functional curves are not an artifact produced by item selection. (Author/RM)

An experiment tested the hypothesis that the memory representation of a text is a hierarchical structure in which information is ordered from most important to least important. Sentences that tested topic information were verified faster and more accurately than sentences that tested detail information. (Author/RM)