Maintenance rehearsal and single-level processing

Abstract

The types of codes generated in maintenance rehearsal and the effects of rehearsal time at various single levels of encoding were examined in a series of six experiments employing an incidental learning procedure, the Distractor Recall task. Results of the experiments suggested that maintenance rehearsal need not involve only shallow processing. Data also provided confirmation of the F. I. M. Craik and R. S. Lockhart (Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1972, 11, 671-684) assumption that once a given depth of processing is attained continued processing at that depth does not enhance item recallability. Further, it was observed that while continued processing at a given depth failed to enhance recall, repeated temporally-contextually distinct encodings of an item to some common level of processing did greatly enhance item recallability. © 1977 Academic Press, Inc. All rights reserved.