Abstract
Indices of inter-item associative strength were obtained on the basis of word association norms for 15 free recall lists consisting of 12 items each. Recall performance on these lists was found to be reliably related to the index of inter-item associative strength for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade children. Consistent with results reported by Deese (1959), it was found that, for all Ss, inter-item associative strength was positively related to the number of words recalled, negatively related to the number of extra-list intrusions, and positively related to the commonality of intrusions. In agreement with the experimental hypothesis, most of the coefficients reported by Deese for college Ss were higher than those obtained for grade school Ss.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.