The locus of forgetting of words and trigrams

Abstract

Ninety-two Ss learned a word-response (r) paired-associate (PA) list, and 92 different Ss learned a consonant-syllable (CCC) r PA list Three types of recall tasks were given prior to the final recall test in order to determine the locus of forgetting for naive Ss after a retention interval of 24h. For the word list, r presentation facilitated final recall, indicating that an important locus of forgetting was loss ofr availability. For the CCC list, r presentation was not effective over appropriate controls. Stimulus (s)-r recall was found to be nearly equal to r-s recall for the word r group, however, inferior to r-s recall for the CCC r group. Repeated recall trials without informative feedback generally facilitated recall of both lists.