Individual differences in subjective organization: short-term memory

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine whether the individual differences in subjective organization that appear during free-recall memorization are due to individual differences in short-term memory or to individual differences in the ability to form and maintain interitem associations as had been suggested by Earhard (1967) and Earhard & Endicott (1969). Ss preselected as high and low subjective organizers, according to their performance during free recall, were tested for short-term memory by the task introduced by Peterson & Peterson (1959). The results indicated that high and low subjective organizers do not differ in short-term memory. These results were discussed in terms of the dichotomy between short-term and long-term memory processes.