TEMPORAL PROPERTIES OF CATEGORY RECALL

In two different experiments subjects were asked for an oral free-recall of 25-item word lists composed of five items from each of five different categories. Results indicated a great deal of irregularity in individual recall records, with long inter-response times (IRTs) occurring between words from different categories and short IRTs occurring between words from the same category. Results were interpreted in terms of a conception of memory as a reconstructive process in which only categories are retained, with individual words generated during the process of recall on the basis of how well their pattern of attributes matches the attribute pattern of the category. © 1969 Academic Press Inc. All rights reserved.