Indirect review and priming through questions

Abstract

Conducted 3 experiments with a total of 264 undergraduates and 108 high school seniors to determine (a) whether attempts to answer a question facilitate the retention of other topically related material that is not directly relevant to the original question (indirect review) and (b) whether performance on a test item is better if a question topically related to the test item has recently been asked (priming). Evidence for indirect review was obtained following study of a 6,000-word text using adjunct questions. No priming effects were observed. The indirect review phenomenon suggests that searching one's memory to answer a question strengthens or makes more available a system of semantically related memory features broader than the memory requirements for the initial question. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1974 American Psychological Association.