Retrieving studied materials often enhances subsequent learning of new materials (Pastötter & Bäuml, 2014). However, retrieval has also been shown to impair new learning (Finn & Roediger, 2013). In this article, we attempted to determine when retrieval enhances and when it impairs new learning. We argue that testing impairs new learning…

The facilitative effect of retrieval practice, or testing, on the probability of later retrieval has been the focus of much recent empirical research. A lesser known benefit of retrieval practice is that it may also enhance the ability of a learner to benefit from a subsequent restudy opportunity. This facilitative effect of retrieval practice on…

Early verbal-memory researchers assumed participants represent memory of a pair of unrelated items with 2 independent, separately modifiable, directional associations. However, memory for pairs of unrelated words (A-B) exhibits associative symmetry: a near-perfect correlation between accuracy on forward (A??) and backward (??B) cued recall. This…

In episodic memory tasks, associations are formed between items presented close together in time. The temporal context model (TCM) hypothesizes that this contiguity effect is a consequence of shared temporal context rather than temporal proximity per se. Using double-function lists of paired associates (e.g., A-B, B-C) presented in a random order,…

We examined associative and item recognition using the maintenance rehearsal paradigm. Our intent was to control for mnemonic strategies; to produce a low, graded level of learning; and to provide evidence of the role of attention in long-term memory. An advantage for low-frequency words emerged in both associative and item recognition at very low…

Attempts to help specify the boundary conditions for use of the recognition-recall method, i.e., recall made conditional upon recognition, and to use this method to evaluate a hypothesis about stimulus-concreteness effects with low-meaningful responses. (Author/RK)

Tests two theoretical accounts of imagery on paired-associate learning. These two theories, differentiation theory and mediation theory, have been proposed to account for the finding that stimilus imagery/concreteness is an important variable in paired-associate learning. (Author/RK)

Albert Michotte, known primarily for his research in perception, also carried out several experiments in logical memory (conceptual or intellectual memory). He was strongly influenced by Kulpe, feeling that the thought processes were autonomous, in contradiction to more traditional and elementary conceptions of mental activity. His experiments,…

Five experiments were conducted comparing performance on paired-associate lists of stimuli that rhymed with lists of stimuli that did not rhyme. Results are discussed in terms of the role of input position cues in aiding discrimination among items. (Editor/RK)