Contextual and Distinctive Processes and the Serial Position Function

Abstract

When people recall a series of items, memory for the last few items is enhanced relative to items earlier in the list, a result called the recency effect. When the final item in the list is followed by a period of distracting activity the recency effect is attenuated, but when every item is followed by distracting activity the recency effect returns. The experiments reported replicate the changing-distractor effect - reduced recency when the distractor task following an item differs from the task following the other items - in incidental learning conditions and demonstrate that when a unique distractor task occurs after every item, the recency effect again reemerges, findings problematic for a rehearsal explanation. Rather, the final experiments support a proposed distinction between contextual effects and those due to distinctiveness, with the result that the changing-distractor effect is no longer seen as problematical for theories of serial position effects based on distinctiveness.