Deconfounding Serial Recall

Abstract

Immediate recall of nine-digit lists was examined with a method designed to disentangle three factors: input serial position, output position, and response set size (the number of items yet to be recalled). Recall began at Input Serial Position 1, 4, or 7 and included either three consecutive items (in partial recall) or all items from the cued point to the end of the list and then continuing from the beginning in a circular fashion (in whole recall). Lists were spoken or printed and were sometimes temporally grouped. Specially selected comparisons demonstrated that (1) the large primacy effect in serial recall occurs mostly because of output interference, without which larger recency effects are seen instead; (2) benefits of mnemonic grouping are dependent on stimulus grouping mainly for auditory stimuli; and (3) auditory superiority effects stem from a greater resistance of acoustic memory to output interference. We offer an integration of results from serial recall and other memory tasks and caution against modeling serial recall in isolation.