Many are Called but Few are Chosen: The Influence of Context on the Effects of Category Size

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the influence of context on the effects of category size. The primary motivation for resorting to the nonnative procedures is to obtain reasonable estimates of pre-experimentally acquired information linked to different types of cues. Presumably, comparisons in cue effectiveness could be made for qualitatively different types of retrieval cues without confounding the variations with strength and category size. The final phase of each cuing experiment consists of the test trial. In the typical experiment, all subjects are given explicit test instructions immediately following the presentation of the last item in the study list. During this trial, a retrieval cue or prompt is presented to aid recall of each individual target word. Subjects are always made aware of the dimension on which the cue and target are related, and this episode is usually self-paced. Results show that both sensory and semantic cues facilitate the retrieval of information from the opposing domain provide one more inkling of the complexities.