Abstract
Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of elaboration on recognition memory. Subjects were given either simple or complex sentences to learn and were tested for recognition of either an individual target word or the entire sentence. Complex sentences supported better recognition performance only when the test item allowed the subject to easily redintegrate the initial encoding context, either by re-presenting the encoded sentence as the test item or by constructing sentences such that the component words of the sentence could be easily redintegrated from an individual target item. It was suggested that complex, elaborate encoding established a richer trace, but that this richness can be utilized to enhance recognition only when the test conditions permit a reinstatement of the original encoding context.
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Tulving, E. Personal communication, June 1977.
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This research was supported by National Research Council of Canada Grant A8261 to Fergus I. M. Craik.
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Fisher, R.P., Craik, F.I.M. The effects of elaboration on recognition memory. Memory & Cognition 8, 400–404 (1980). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211136
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211136