Contributions to the functional analysis of single-trial free recall.

Abstract

An extensive body of research generated by the now outmoded dual store model has produced a set of functional principles of single-trial free recall. One principle, termed the ratio rule, describes the properties of the recency effect, while several others based upon laws of rehearsal have been advanced to account for the primacy effect. These principles, which may eventually establish the foundation for a more comprehensive theory of list memory, were tested in three experiments. The first two experiments showed that when rehearsal is eliminated (Experiment 1) or equated (Experiment 2), reliable primacy and recency effects are obtained. The third experiment demonstrated that the effectiveness of rehearsal during list presentation declines monotonically as a function of serial position. These results contrast with the prevailing functional account of both primacy and recency effects and suggest several new lines of inquiry into the subject. For almost a century, and especially in the last 30 years, psychologists have endeavored to understand the primacy and recency effects of free recall (Murdock, 1962). The approaches taken to explain those effects in the past can be roughly divided into two categories. One approach attributed serial position effects to properties determined solely by an item's relative position within a list. Murdochs (I960) theory of stimulus distinctiveness exemplified this type of analysis. A second approach emphasized the interaction between cognitive systems and behavioral strategies such as rehearsal (e.g.. Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968;Rundus, 197 l;Waugh & Norman,

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