Abstract
Two studies were conducted with the purpose of investigating the possibility of organization of information in short-term recognition memory. In the first of these, eight subjects were given extensive testing in a Sternberg setting involving target sets which were either homogeneous (HM) or heterogeneous (HT) with respect to taxonomic category. The functions relating reaction time to set size were parallel for the two treatments and, thus, no evidence was revealed for organization. In the second investigation, 72 subjects were tested once each with set size held constant. Serial position functions for the HT data were consistent with a directed entry strategy and hence with organization in STM. The search for targets in early serial positions appeared to be serial and self terminating, while that for late position items was likely parallel.
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Support for this research was received under National Research Council of Canada Grant APA-78. The authors are indebted to Lydia Little for computer programming. The paper was read at the 1974 meetings of the Psychonomic Society.
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McCormack, P.D., Carboni, N.L. & Colletta, S.P. Organization in short-term recognition memory. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 5, 437–440 (1975). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333292
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333292