Note on Individual Storage Loads and Individual Load Reductions

Abstract

Sequential memory tasks require E to construct a sequence of items to be remembered and cues to recall these items. In a series of studies sequences were constructed in terms of the average number of items S was remembering at a recall point and of the average number of items S was asked to recall at a recall point. These averages were based on values assigned to individual items and recall points. The present study systematically varied the distribution of these individual values that formed the averages. Bimodal distributions affected recall differently from symmetrical distributions.