Intrinsic Organization of Serial Lists

Abstract

Twenty-four Ss learned four 12-item serial lists. One list was composed of consonants, another of numbers, another of 6 numbers followed by 6 consonants, and another of 3 numbers followed by 3 consonants followed by 3 names of months followed by 3 color names. S saw the entire list and then responded orally. The criterion was one perfect trial. By a Duncan Multiple-range F test every mean was different from each other mean (p < .05). In another experiment 16 Ss learned 2 lists (each containing 4 categories of items). In one list the members of the categories were grouped together; in the other they were not. The mean number of trials to criterion was different by a t test (p < .001).