Instance and Category Transfer in Free Recall

Abstract

When the same categories but different instances appear in successive recall lists, interference theory predicts negative transfer for the recall of instances and positive transfer for the recall of categories. Previous findings have conformed to interference theory predictions for instance recall, but not for category recall. It was argued that the two types of recall are not independent and that the discrepant findings for category recall are due to countervailing forces deriving from instance recall. The present study supports the dependence of both types of recall by demonstrating that both instance and category recall are influenced in the same direction by manipulations that weaken, but do not obscure, the instance-category relationship.