Negative recency and levels of processing in free recall.

Initial and final free recall of 5-item lists are compared for four different “processing activities”; during list presentation Ss either silently rehearsed, overtly rehearsed, generated rhymes, or generated verbal associates. Whereas the two rehearsal conditions show a marked superiority in immediate free recall, their final (delayed) recall is inferior to that of lists for which associates were generated. It appears that the negative recency effect commonly obtained in delayed recall is a consequence of processing strategies which maximize the recency effect in immediate recall. Comparaison de quatre facons de traiter l'information en situation de libre rappel initial et final de listes a cinq items: repetition mentale, repetition a haute voix, construction de rimes, associations de mots. Les resultats montrent une nette superiorite des deux conditions de repetition en libre rappel immediat; mais le rappel final (differe), pour ces deux memes conditions, est inferieur au rappel des listes ou les sujets devaient faire des associations de mots. Il semble que l'effet negatif de recence habituellement observe en rappel differe soit du a des strategies de traitement qui maximisent l'effet de recence en rappel immediat.