von Restorff Revisited: Isolation, Generation, and Memory for Order

The effects of isolation and generation on memory for order were investigated in 4 experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 examined the effect of isolation on order retention. Previous investigations in this area have yielded equivocal results. Experiments 1 and 2 revealed that isolation enhances memory fo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition memory, and cognition, 2001-01, Vol.27 (1), p.54-66
Main Authors: Kelley, Matthew R, Nairne, James S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition & reasoning
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Generation Effect (Learning)
Human
Humans
Isolation Effect
Learning. Memory
Male
Memory
Models, Psychological
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Retention (Psychology)
Serial Learning
Serial Recall
Stimulus Parameters
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Summary:The effects of isolation and generation on memory for order were investigated in 4 experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 examined the effect of isolation on order retention. Previous investigations in this area have yielded equivocal results. Experiments 1 and 2 revealed that isolation enhances memory for order: Isolated items were repositioned more accurately than comparable items in control lists. Experiments 3 and 4 investigated the effect of generation on order retention. These experiments revealed that generation can enhance, disrupt, or have no effect on memory for order, depending on the relative number of generated items appearing within a list. Implications of these results for general theoretical accounts of isolation effects in memory are discussed. A simplified version of the feature model ( J. S. Nairne, 1990 ) is shown to provide a general account of isolation effects.
ISSN:0278-7393
1939-1285
DOI:10.1037/0278-7393.27.1.54