Abstract
Almost all free-recall experiments involve an acquisition phase in which the set of to-be-learned items is presented repeatedly in its entirety. Two experiments are described that pit this standard procedure against theselective reminding procedure (Buschke, 1973), wherein only items incorrect on trial n are presented again on trial n+ 1. The two methods were virtually identical in terms of (1) trials to reach an acquisition criterion of one errorless recall, (2) number of items correct on each recall trial during acquisition, (3) number of items correct on a 3-week delayed-recall test, (4) number of items correctly relearned after the 3-week retention interval, (5) extent of subjective organization on all retention tests, and (6) pattern of errors over all test trials. These results generalized to both single-category and random lists of 20 words, and were thoroughly consistent across the two experiments. However, the standard procedure required that many more items be presented over trials, and more subjects failed to learn the list within 1 h using the standard procedure. Because the selective reminding procedure is more efficient and has no apparent drawbacks, it is recommended that memory researchers switch to selective reminding as the preferred way to teach a subject a free-recall list.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Atkinson, R. C., &Paulson, J. A. (1972). An approach to the psychology of instruction.Psychological Bulletin,78, 49–61.
Battig, W. F. (1965). Procedural problems in paired-associate learning research.Psychonomic Monograph Supplements,1(No. 1).
Battig, W. F., &Montague, W. E. (1969). Category norms for verbal items in 56 categories: A replication and extension of the Connecticut category norms.Journal of Experimental Psychology Monographs,80(3, Pt. 2).
Bousfield, W. A. (1953). The occurrence of clustering in the recall of randomly arranged associates.Journal of General Psychology,49, 229–240.
Buschke, H. (1973). Selective reminding for analysis of memory and learning.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior,12, 543–550.
Buschke, H. (1976). Learning is organized by chunking.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior,15, 313–324.
Fuld, P. A., &Buschke, H. (1976). Stages of retrieval in verbal learning.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior,15, 401–410.
Karush, W., &Dear, R. E. (1966). Optimal stimulus presentation strategy for a stimulus sampling model of learning.Journal of Mathematical Psychology,3, 19–47.
Keppel, G. (1982).Design and analysis: A researcher’s handbook. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Kintsch, W. (1970).Learning, memory, and conceptual processes. New York: Wiley.
Lorton, P., Jr. (1972).Computer-based instruction in spelling: An investigation of optimal strategies for presenting instructional material. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University.
MacLeod, C. M. (1976). Bilingual episodic memory: Acquisition and forgetting.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior,15, 347–364.
Murdock, B. B., Jr.,Anderson, R. E., &Ho, E. (1974). Effects of presentation order on learning in multitrial free recall.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior,13, 522–529.
Murdock, B. B., Jr.,Penney, C., &Aamiry, A. (1970). Interactive presentation on multi-trial free recall.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior,9, 679–683.
Murphy, M. D., &Puff, C. R. (1982). Free recall: Basic methodology and analyses. In C. R Puff (Ed.),Handbook of research methods in human memory and cognition. New York: Academic Press.
Nelson, T. O. (1971). Savings and forgetting from long-term memory.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior,10, 568–576.
Nelson, T. O., &MacLeod, C. M. (1974). Fluctuations in recall across successive test trials.Memory & Cognition,2, 687–690
Postman, L. (1962). Repetition and paired-associate learning.American Journal of Psychology,75, 372–389.
Rock, I. (1957). The role of repetition in associative learning.American Journal of Psychology,70, 186–193.
Tulving, E. (1962). Subjective organization in free recall of “unrelated” words.Psychological Review,69, 344–354.
Tulving, E. (1967). The effects of presentation and recall of material in free-recall learning.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior,6, 175–184.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Grants A7459 and E6532. For their assistance in collecting and scoring the data.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
MacLeod, C.M. Learning a list for free recall: Selective reminding versus the standard procedure. Memory & Cognition 13, 233–240 (1985). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197686
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197686