The effects of recall and recognition test expectancies on the retention of prose

Abstract

The hypothesis that people expecting recall and recognition employ different encoding processes was tested in two experiments using prose materials. In Experiment 1, unrelated sentences were used, and in Experiment 2, a short essay was used. The results indicated that a recall test expectancy led to greater sentence recall than a recognition test expectancy. No evidence was found to support the hypothesis that people expecting recall and recognition retained different types of information contained in sentences. In Experiment 2, the effects of test expectancy were analyzed as a function of the structural importance and rated comprehensibility of sentences. A main effect of test expectancy was found in sentence recall, replicating the results of Experiment 1. Also, people expecting recall tended to remember greater detail than did people expecting recognition. The results suggested that encoding processes vary as a function of test expectancy and that the appropriateness of encoding depends on the type of test received. © 1983 Psychonomic Society, Inc.