Imagery and organization in memory: Instructional effects

Abstract

This paper concerns the relation between mental organization and memory performance. In a series of experiments, it is determined that interactive imagery exceeds separate imagery in cued recall and the organization of free recall. However, the two are indistinguishable in either recognition or the level of free recall unless some additional interunit organization is initially encoded. Although interactive imagery allows a list to be retained as fewer traces than does separate imagery, those traces are necessarily larger. The inverse relation between the number and size of traces is found also in the organization of free recall. This tradeoff results in equivalent total recall. © 1978 Psychonomic Society, Inc.