Psychology ETDs

Publication Date

6-15-1977

Abstract

A number of theories have been advanced to explain the lag effect, i.e., the finding that, when an item is repeated in a list being studied for a later memory test, the greater the distance between those repetitions, the greater the subsequent test performance relative to that item. The theories proposed to account for this phenomenon all attribute it to differences in the operation of a single factor at short and long lags. This factor has been considered to be one of the following: total amount of rehearsal time; cumulative consolidation from a short-term reverberatory to a long-term structural stage; attentional allocation; the habituation of the long-term storage response; variability, either contextual or semantic, in the encoding of the different repetitions; and study phase retrieval processes. In order to determine which of these theories is the most plausible, this experiment was run. It consisted of a combination of the free recall and cued forgetting paradigms. Subjects in the experimental group were told to study and recall only words which occurred just once on the list, and to try to forget and avoid recalling any twice-occurring words. Subjects in the control group received the normal free recall instructions for three study-test trials. At the beginning of the test phase of the third trial, they were surprised by being asked to recall all words appearing on the previous list, regardless of the number of iterations. Predictions generated from the theories of the lag effect for the experimental group varied from a flat, constant lag-recall function to one running parallel to the monotonic increasing function of the control group. The results were inconsistent with any of the predictions. The experimental group showed increasing recall performance through lag six, but then a marked decline in recall for lags eight and ten. These findings seem to demand the inclusion of at least two factors in any explanation of the lag effect in the free recall paradigm. Performance levels over the smaller lags are consistent with either the encoding variability or study phase retrieval theories, but the decline in recall thereafter remains unexplained.

Degree Name

Psychology

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Psychology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Henry Carleton Ellis

Second Committee Member

John Paul Gluck Jr.

Third Committee Member

Harold D. Delaney

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

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