BIDIRECTIONAL ASSOCIATIONS IN MULTI-TRIAL FREE RECALL

An augmented measure of organization in free recall, combining reverse-order intertrial repetitions (R-ITR) and the usual same-order intertrial repetitions (S-ITR), was more highly correlated with measures of organization and number of words recalled than a measure including S-ITRs alone. The conditional probabilities of an S-ITR or an R-ITR between one pair of trials given an R-ITR between another pair of trials and the conditional probabilities of an S-ITR or an R-ITR given an S-ITR were well above chance. While in every case the observed proportion of S-ITRs was greater than the proportion of R-ITRs, it is estimated, excluding Ss who alphabetized the entire list, that the majority of the observed intertrial repetitions could be explained in terms of bidirectional associations. © 1969, Psychonomic Journals, Inc.. All rights reserved.