Variation in Orienting Tasks for Immediate and Final Free Recall

Abstract

Subjects had a single immediate test for each of six unrelated free recall lists, followed by a final free recall test. Subjects performed either a deep or a shallow classification task during the study phase for each list, and over lists the classification involved either the same or a different feature. Deep tasks were superior to shallow tasks only for the recall of items from the middle of the input sequence on both immediate and final tests. Task variation led to better recency recall and worse primacy recall on the immediate tests, but there were no differences for the immediate recall of middle items or any segment on the final test. When given the same task throughout, deep tasks led to better recall of recency items on the final test than did the shallow task, but there was no difference when the specific tasks were varied. A group which had no classification task recalled significantly more primacy items than any of the orienting-task groups on both immediate and final tests and was numerically superior for the other list segments. The results are considered in terms of breadth of encoding from varied experiences, proactive inhibition, and establishing judgmental anchors.