Dual-Retrieval Processes in Free and Associative Recall

Abstract

Recent dual-retrieval accounts of free recall postulate that a memory target can be recalled either by directly accessing its verbatim trace or by reconstructing it from semantic or other relational information. We introduce a simple paradigm, derived from the classic Estes RTT procedure, that separates direct access from reconstruction and that separates reconstruction from a metacognitive judgment process that authorizes reconstructed targets for output. Results are reported from four experiments, two that applied the paradigm to free recall and two that extended it to associative recall. The principal findings were that (a) direct access was enhanced by manipulations that made targets' surface forms easier to process or that focused recall on individual targets, (b) reconstruction was enhanced by manipulations that made targets' meaning content easier to process or that focused recall on groups of targets, and (c) such manipulations produced single dissociations, double dissociations, and reversed associations between direct access, reconstruction, and metacognitive judgment. We discuss how this paradigm might be exploited to unify dual-retrieval conceptions of recall and recognition.