Inhibition in recall from cueing with recall targets

After presentation of categorized lists subjects were given category names to serve as retrieval cues and, in some cases, words from the original list as well. The primary finding was inhibition in recall of additional category instances when both category names and items were presented as compared to recall cued only by category names. These results were interpreted as incompatible with interitem associative theories but consistent with hierarchical theories. Presenting item cues was proposed to increment the strengths of these items to a superordinate control element and consequently decrease accessibility of other items. A secondary finding of output interference between successively recalled categories was attributed to decreasing accessibility of information not successfully integrated into higher-order units.