Effect of Recall Condition, Presentation Rate and Retention Interval on Short-Term Memory

1965 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 877-883 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas L. Rohrman ◽  
John C. Jahnke

A total of 300 university students were presented a brief list of non-alphanumeric items and instructed to recall immediately either the items (free recall, FR), the order in which the items were presented (order recall, OR), or both (serial recall, SR). Presentation rate and retention interval were additional experimental variables in Exp. I and II, respectively. In both experiments significant differences in recall were found between FR conditions and the remaining two, which did not differ from each other. More items were recalled at the slow than fas: rate. Retention interval was not a significant variable. Results suggest that retention will improve when order information is eliminated from recall (Brown, 1958), that the recall of item and order information involve at least partially independent memory processes, and that, while the recall of items may proceed independently of the recall of their order, the converse is not true.

1965 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leo Postman ◽  
Laura W. Phillips

An experimental study of short-term memory for lists of familiar English words is reported. Lists of 10, 20, and 30 unrelated words were presented at a 1-sec. rate. Retention was measured by free recall after intervals of 0, 15 and 30 sec. A counting task was used to prevent rehearsal during the retention interval. The absolute level of recall increased with length of list whereas the percentages retained showed the reverse trend. The recall scores decreased steadily as a function of retention interval, with the rates of forgetting comparable for the three lengths of list. The decline in the amount recalled was due in large measure to the loss of the terminal items in the list. Consequently, the pronounced recency effect present on the immediate test of recall was progressively reduced as a function of time. By contrast retention of the initial part of the list was relatively stable. These variations in rate of forgetting are attributed to differences among serial positions in susceptibility to proactive inhibition.


1976 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 827-833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Frankel ◽  
Steven G. Ames

In two experiments, subjects were given 4 presentations of a list divided temporally into 5 groups of 3 items each (grouped) or received the same word lists at a constant rate of presentation (ungrouped) and matched for over-all presentation time. Grouped presentation enhanced recall only in the later serial positions while decreasing recall in the middle serial positions. Results of Exp. I also showed differences in order of recall. The results of Exp. II demonstrated that order of recall was not related to the differences in recall produced by grouping. Implications for short-term memory and memory consolidation were discussed.


1969 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Gerver

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the effect of message structure, message length, and presentation rate upon auditory short-term memory. Subjects were asked to reproduce in writing messages at different levels of “grammaticalness” (Coleman, 1965) presented through headphones at 3–4 words/sec. or 6–7 words/ sec. There was better recall of the more structured, shorter, and slower messages. The results are discussed in terms of acquisition and encoding of information.


1989 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 423-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuniyasu Imanaka

Two experiments done with a short-term memory paradigm examined the influence of shifts in the starting position on the reproduction of kinesthetic location (Exp. 1) and on distance cues (Exp. 2). We assessed possible causes of the systematic pattern of undershooting and overshooting as related to the shift in the starting position. In each experiment, two groups of 10 students were given 25 trials, and each had criterion and reproduction tasks involving linear-positioning movements with a 10-sec. retention interval. Each experiment had two independent variables, the group of subjects and the shift in the starting position. The two groups differed in the possible sources of information, the distance moved (Exp. 1) or the end-location (Exp. 2), which were assumed to cause undershooting and overshooting during reproduction. Analysis showed that the information about the distance moved may produce undershooting and overshooting in reproduction of the end-location (Exp. 1). Also, the information about the end-location may produce undershooting and overshooting in reproduction of the distance moved (Exp. 2). The findings were further evidence of interference between location and distance cues in motor short-term memory.


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