Abstract
Is memory temporally organized? According to temporal distinctiveness models of memory, temporally isolated items should be better remembered than temporally crowded items in free recall tasks. Here, we tested this class of model by varying the temporal isolation of items either predictably (Experiment 1) or unpredictably (Experiment 2) in a free recall task. In both experiments, item recall probability increased as a function of the temporal gaps both before and after the item. The results are taken as support for temporal distinctiveness models of memory, in which items are represented and recalled in terms of their positions along a temporal dimension.
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This research was supported by ESRC Grant RES 000 231038 to the first and second authors and by a Linkage International Grant from the Australian Research Council to the first and third authors.
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Brown, G.D.A., Morin, C. & Lewandowsky, S. Evidence for time-based models of free recall. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 13, 717–723 (2006). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193986
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193986