EFFECTS OF ENCODING VARIABILITY AND SPACING ON FREQUENCY DISCRIMINATION

Previous research has shown mixed results regarding the effects of encoding variability on memory for frequency. A series of experiments is reported here using a frequency-discrimination task. In all of the experiments, when repetitions were massed on the list, frequency discrimination was improved when repeated items were studied in a different encoding context at each presentation. In contrast, when repetitions were spaced, frequency discrimination tended to improve when repeated items were studied in identical contexts at each of their presentations. However, this latter trend was weak and was not found when the items had been learned incidentally. (C) 1995 Academic Press. Inc.