The Organization of the Retention of Verbal Material

Brand, Howard; Woods, Paul J.

doi:10.1080/00221309.1958.9920382

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 7 publications

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“…In the absence of practice, a retention situation exists. Brand and Woods (1958) compared the retention of a categorized list at 1-, 2-, and 3-week intervals. In one condition, a single group was tested at each of the retention intervals.…”

Section: Variables Influencing Organizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clustering and organization in free recall.

Shuell

1969

Psychological Bulletin

199

118

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Research on clustering and subjective organization (SO) in free recall is reviewed and evaluated. Various indexes developed to measure clustering and SO are evaluated, and two intercorrelation matrices among clustering measures and the number of words recalled are presented. The existence of a large negative bias in the correlation between the ratio of repetition (RR) measure and recall is demonstrated. Various theoretical issues which have developed from the study of organization in free recall are presented and discussed.

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Section: Variables Influencing Organizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clustering and organization in free recall.

Shuell

1969

Psychological Bulletin

199

118

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Stylistic Factors in Learning and Retention

McKenna

1968

ETS Research Bulletin Series

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The purposes of this investigation were, first, to determine the extent of individual consistency in the tendencies to err either by omission or commission in tasks requiring learning and retention, and, secondly, to determine the relationship between any such consistent tendencies and relevant cognitive, personality, and ability variables. A battery of 26 tests from which 86 variables were generated was administered to 147 college students, 70 men and 77 women, by individual and group testing. Information concerning scholastic ability and achievement, as well as control measures of socioeconomic status and seating position in the testing room, were included in the analysis. The 86 variables were intercorrelated, and 44 were factor analyzed by the method of principal components. Thirteen obtained factors were rotated to oblique simple structure by the Promax method plus three visual rotations. Loadings for the remaining 42 variables were determined by extension methods. Thirteen first order factors and four second order were then cast into a Schmid‐Leiman hierarchical solution. Four first order factors were interpreted as representing error styles in learning and retention. The clearest stylistic factor obtained at this level, Factor V, was characterized by omission tendencies in span memory for primarily numerical stimuli. Other stylistic factors were interpreted as commission tendencies in connected discourse, Factor IV; omission tendencies

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Proximity Analysis and the Structure of Organization in Free Recall

Friendly

1972

ETS Research Bulletin Series

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An experiment was designed to test the sensitivity of the method to differences in organizational structure. All subjects learned a list consisting of words selected from hierarchically related taxonomic categories, and which could be organized in alternative ways. Three experimental groups were influenced to adopt the alternative organizations by using different blocked presentation orders of the items. Twelve acquisition trials were given and long‐term retention was tested after either 1, 5, 10, or 20 days. All experimental groups receiving categorically blocked presentation recalled and retained more words than a random input‐order control group. However, the experimental groups did not differ among themselves in recall during acquisition or retention. The proximity analyses produced results which were consistent with the predetermined patterns of organization and indicated that the different organizations of the list were maintained in the retention test. Existing data from several studies of part‐whole transfer by Ornstein were reanalyzed to assess the explanatory power of the method of proximity analysis. These studies had delineated some conditions under which prior learning of part of a list would facilitate or hinder subsequent learning of the whole list. One study demonstrated that random presentation of the whole list produced negative transfer, but that whole‐list learning was facilitated by blocking the presentation order of the final list according to the “old” and “new” subsets of items. Applying proximity analysis to these data, it was found that the higher‐order subjective units identified from the first‐list protocols carried over to second list learning only for those subjects who had received blocked presentation of the final list. These results directly verified predictions which had been made from a theory of subjective organization (Tulving). It was concluded that the method of proximity analysis can be useful in attempts to elucidate the relationship between organization and memory. One of the central questions in the study of free recall learning concerns the role of organizational factors in retrieving information from memory. This work has been greatly facilitated by the development of procedures for measuring the amount of organization evidenced in recall. At a conceptual level, such measures may be thought of as indexing the formation of informationally‐rich higher order memory units which serve as multiple access routes to the list items they subtend. Thus, a given list item may be retrieved either on its own merits or through prior retrieval of the subjective memory unit which includes it. There has been, however, no way to determine the actual manner of organization employed by individual subjects. Such a procedure would seem necessary in order to test directly hypotheses concerning the way in which organization influences performance and retention. A method for assessing the structure of organization was developed on the basis of the ordinal separation, or proximity, betw...

show abstract

The Organization of the Retention of Verbal Material

Cited by 6 publications

References 7 publications

Clustering and organization in free recall.

Clustering and organization in free recall.

Stylistic Factors in Learning and Retention

Proximity Analysis and the Structure of Organization in Free Recall

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