RETRIEVAL CUES AND ACCESSIBILITY OF HIGHER-ORDER MEMORY UNITS IN MULTITRIAL FREE RECALL

All Ss were presented 54 words for three (Experiments II and III) or five (Experiment I) alternating study and test free-recall learning trials. One half of the Ss were given 18 words from the list as retrieval cues during the second stage of the last test trial. The major finding was that such cueing facilitated recall only when related words were presented consecutively during the learning trials. The failure to obtain a cueing effect when unrelated words were presented consecutively during the learning trials may be interpreted as negative evidence for the view that Ss form discrete higher order memory units during free recall learning. Or, if Ss from discrete higher-order memory units when unrelated words are presented consecutively, it seems they are unable or unwilling to form more discrete memory units than they can retrieve. © 1969 Academic Press Inc. All rights reserved.