The priority of recall of new items in transfer from part-list learning to whole-list learning

Abstract

The priority of recall of new items (PRNI) recently has been interpreted as an artifact of (a) the serial position of new items, and (b) recall of new items from primary memory. In a part-whole free-recall transfer experiment, a reliable PRNI effect was found even though both sources of artifact were controlled. In a second experiment, it was found that recalling new items before old items led to a significantly higher level of recall of new items than recalling old items before new items. These results were interpreted in terms of strategies used by Ss to maximize total items recalled.