An examination on the relationship between elaboration and to-be-elaborated items in human memory

Abstract

Two experiments were designed to examine the relationship between elaboration and to-be-elaborated items in paired-associate learning. In the first task of both experiments, 20 subjects were presented with a sequence of 32 noun words to be elaborated, and instructed either to generate sentences or to produce associates. In second task, the subjects were asked to remember pairs of words either incidentally (Exp. I) or intentionally (Exp. II). The first word of the pairs, referred to as the context word, was used later as a cue for cued recall, while the second word, as the target word, was to be recalled. Three different types of pairs were constructed: (i) C pairs, in which the context word was elaborated and the target word was not, (ii) T pairs, in which the target word was elaborated and the context word was not, and (iii) CT pairs, in which both words were elaborated. Subjects who generated sentences remembered the items better than subjects who produced associations. Both T and CT pairs were more recalled than C pairs, while there was no difference in recall between T and CT pairs. The results suggest that the type of to-be-elaborated items is an important factor in elaborative process.