Lists of 10 dissyllables varying in meaningfulness were presented to subjects in a multiple-trial free recall task. Measures of recall and clustering showed superior recall and greater amounts of clustering for the high-meaningful list than for the low-meaningful list. Differential item integration and associative relatedness were mechanisms employed to explain the differences.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AbramczykR. R.Clustering and sequential ordering in multitrial free recall as a function of meaningfulness. Psychological Reports, 1971, 28, 783–793.
2.
BousfieldW. A.The occurrence of clustering in the recall of randomly arranged associates. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 1953, 48, 229–240.
3.
BousfieldW. A.PuffC. R.CowanT. M.The development of constancies in sequential organization during repeated free recall. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1964, 3, 489–495.
4.
DeeseJ.Influence of inter-item associative strength upon intermediate free recall. Psychological Reports, 1959, 5, 305–312.
5.
MandlerG.Response factors in human learning. Psychological Review, 1954, 61, 235–244.
6.
NobleC. E.An analysis of meaning. Psychological Review, 1952, 59, 421–430.
7.
NobleC. E.Meaningfulness and familiarity. In CoferC. N.MusgraveB. S. (Eds.), Verbal behavior and learning. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963. Pp. 7–13.
8.
PostmanL.AdamsP. A.PhillipsL. W.Studies in incidental learning: II. The effects of association value and of the method of testing. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1955, 49, 1–10.
9.
PostmanL.PhillipsL. W.Studies in incidental learning: IX. A comparison of the methods of successive and single recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1961, 61, 236–241.
10.
TulvingE.Subjective organization in the free recall of unrelated words. Psychological Review, 1962, 69, 344–354.
11.
TulvingE.Theoretical issues in free recall. In DixonT. R.HortonD. L. (Eds.), Verbal behavior and general behavior theory. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968. Pp. 2–36.
12.
UnderwoodB. J.Experimental psychology. (2nd ed.) New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1966.