The role of organizational processes in long-term retention

Describes 3 experiments with 120 college students. An earlier study by the authors was replicated; in addition, it was found that delayed recognition may either be improved or hindered by instructions to learn. The instructional effect did not appear in delayed recall of Ss who were given a recall test immediately after encoding. The effect did not occur when no obvious organizational strategy was available to Ss nor when both intentional and incidental learning Ss were able to perceive and use the taxonomic structure inherent in a word list. It is concluded that optimal delayed recall might depend heavily, relative to immediate recall, on the use of organizational processes. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).