The role of rehearsal in long-term memory performance

Abstract

In each of two experiments, subjects were given 48 Brown-Peterson trials, using word lists as stimuli, followed by an unexpected final free recall test on the words. Of interest was the influence on final performance of (1) the length of the original Brown-Peterson retention interval and (2) whether the subject overtly rehearsed the word list or performed a rehearsal-preventing task during the Brown-Peterson retention interval. To avoid confoundings involving the influence of initial recall on final recall, initial recall was required on only half the trials and analysis of final performance was restricted to data from the other half of the trials (referred to as no-recall trials). Results were consistent over the experiments: Items rehearsed during the Brown-Peterson retention interval showed better delayed recall than did items for which rehearsal was prevented. Also, delayed performance increased monotonically with retention interval for items that the subject had rehearsed but remained fairly constant over retention interval for items whose presentation was followed by a rehearsal-preventing task. It is argued that earlier studies indicating that overt repetition will not increase performance on a delayed test have failed to consider that overt repetition is a nonunitary phenomenon which may show either maintenance or elaborative properties in different situations.