LEVEL-OF-PROCESSING EFFECTS IN CONCEPTUALLY DRIVEN IMPLICIT TASKS

Level of processing (LOP) has often been shown to affect performance on explicit memory tasks, but not on implicit memory tasks. These findings have been explained by the processing framework (Roediger, Weldon, & Challis, 1989): study-test transfer depends on the overlap between the types of processing at study and at test. This framework predicts that conceptually driven implicit (CDI) memory tasks should be affected by a LOP manipulation, because the study and test tasks share common conceptual processes. This prediction was investigated with 2 CDI tasks: general knowledge retrieval and category exemplar generation. LOP effects were found in both tasks, thus supporting the processing framework. Category exemplar priming declined rapidly over a 90-min interval, and elaborative study conditions enhanced the duration of priming relative to physical conditions.