THE RETENTION AND FREE-RECALL OF MULTIPLE MOVEMENTS

Lists of movements, varying in length from 1 to 10 items were given to subjects using an immediate free recall procedure. A technique for dichotomizing subjects' movements, developed earlier, was employed to obtain percentages and probabilities of correct recalls (Wilberg and Adam 1985). An estimate was made of the likelihood that a significant number of recalled movements could have occurred by chance. A set of procedures applied before, during, and following the experiment reduced this likelihood to an insignificant value. Three types of analyses were made involving: the serial order in which the list items were given, the order in which they were recovered, and the precision with which the items were actually recalled. The results suggest that recall failure is dependent upon both the number of items that must be retained, and the precision requirements demanded at recall. Serial position effects of primacy, asymptote, and recency, normally found in the verbal literature were reaffirmed here; but more importantly the data provided support for order effects in free recall, both within and outside of memory capacity that are not often reported in the verbal learning and memory literature (see Greene (1986) for exceptions). These order effects appear to be dependent upon both a criterion list item-to-item relationship, and a memory capacity effect. © 1990.