The influence of interpolated recall upon recognition

An experiment was designed to show how immediate recall may affect recognition. A number of subjects were shown a picture. Some were asked to recall it and were then given a recognition test. Others were given only the recognition test after the same interval. Only 4 of the 16 subjects who had recalled it identified it; whereas 14 of the 16 others did so. A second experiment gave similar results.

Recall was constructed round dominant items of the picture. This distribution of emphasis together with the acceptance of an invented detail as genuine were the common causes of errors in subsequent recognition. Both the dominant and invented items in recall were those which became most obviously merged into an organization of related experiences and in consequence those which militated against subsequent recognition.

The recognition test was applied in two further groups of 16 subjects with a change in one of the dominant details (i.e. the wording). The number of subjects who now correctly identified the remainder of the material was 9 when there was no intermediate recall, and nil when immediate recall of the original material was interposed.