To assess further the effectiveness of bizarre imagery, undergraduates were exposed to a variety of paired-associate, stimulus contexts (unmixed normal, unmixed bizarre, and mixed) and then were tested at one of three retention intervals (0, 3, or 5 days). Consistent with our earlier findings, elements within the mixed context were recalled the best at both the 0- and 3-day intervals. Interestingly, the unmixed bizarre items improved performance as much as mixed ones when testing occurred at 5 days, suggesting that bizarre-only elements needed sufficient time to develop their distinctive memory traces.
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