Hypermnesia for high-imagery words: The effects of interpolated tasks

Abstract

MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge, England The purpose of this study was to determine whether hypermnesia (improved net recall over time) can be differentially affected by manipulating the nature of tasks performed during the intervals between successive recall trials. In Experiment 1, all subjects were asked to imaginally encode separate words and were tested three times for recall. The control group (no interpolated task) produced the hypermnesia effect. Both groups performing interpolated tasks showed sig-nificantly lower recall. A second experiment was conducted in order to replicate these results and to examine the effects of intertest rehearsal on hypermnesia. In Experiment 2, subjects were asked to encode pairs of words using interactive-imagery instructions. Six different interpolated task conditions were employed, varying in the degree to which subsystems of working memory were used. Groups performing imaginai interpolated tasks showed no hypermnesia, whereas those performing nonimaginal tasks did. These findings suggest that access to working memory (see Baddeley, 1986) is not necessary for hypermnesia. © 1991 Psychonomic Society, Inc.