Cueing and List Organization in the Recall of Categorized Lists

Abstract

A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial experiment examined the effects on recall of (a) blocked and random sequential organization during presentation of categorized lists, (b) presence or absence of category item cues at recall, and (c) presence or absence of category label cues at recall. 24 subjects in the blocked-presentation condition and 24 subjects in the random-presentation condition learned and recalled lists in all of the four conditions of cues at recall. Significant effects were noted for both category label and category item cues following blocked presentation, but only category label cues significantly affected recall following random presentation. More words per category were recalled for blocked than for random list presentation. The presence of item cues at recall suppressed the words per category recalled.