Hypermnesia: The role of repeated testing

Determined whether the increased recall of pictures across repeated tests (hypermnesia) was due to increasing strength of imaginal traces during the retention interval or to increased retrieval practice from prior tests. 120 undergraduates studied 60 pictures and then recalled them after various delays that were filled with instructions and, in 2 cases, reading a passage. Recall on a 1st test showed no change with retention interval. With retention interval held constant, however, the number of pictures recalled varied directly with the number of prior tests Ss had been given. Implications of the critical nature of retrieval factors in producing hypermnesia are discussed. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).