Differences in free and serial recall of categorized lists

Abstract

Two experiments investigated whether differences in clustering and amount of recall produced by free and serial recall of categorized lists reflected differences in how items were stored or how they were retrieved. An experimental condition with serial recall instructions before and free recall instructions after list presentation (and storage) was compared with standard serial and free recall conditions. The results showed that different instructions influenced how the items were retrieved and reported but not how many items were stored.