ASSOCIATIVE GROUPING AND FREE RECALL

Abstract

Investigations are reported into the effects of variations in association level, word frequency and the presented associated group size on free recall, the associated groups being presented in both a blocked and a randomized fashion. In the blocked presentation recall efficiency increased with association level and was curvilinearly related to increasing presented group size; word frequency had no independent effect on recall but interacted with the variations in list structure to produce more efficient recall of the lists with larger presented groups of low‐frequency words, and better recall of the lists with smaller presented groups of high‐frequency words. In the randomized presentation recall facilitation with increasing association level was obtained but recall efficiency decreased with decreasing presented group size. These results are interpreted as being consistent with a coding process at input involving the use of categorized items and category labels, with the latter being necessary for the retrieval of the stored items.