An Exploratory Study of Discrimination of Composer Style

With an alternate study-test procedure, 254 college students attempted either to free-recall or rearrange in order items of an 11-CVC serial list to a criterion of two consecutive perfect trials. Ss learned the list with or without an isolate which was placed on each of the 11 serial positions. The main findings were as follows: (a) While the reconstruction condition required fewer study trials to criterion than the free-recall condition, the isolation effect occurred equally in both conditions. (b) The isolation effect was a function of the serial position; the effect was greater at the central positions than at the peripherals in free-recall and this trend was essentially reversed in the reconstruction condition. (c) In free-recall, no reliable and systematic spreading effect was obtained for the items immediately preceding and following the isolate; however, a positive spreading effect occurred concurrently with the isolation effect in the reconstruction condition. The isolation effect has been accounted for by a selective rehearsal assumption. Implications regarding the functional cues in serial order learning and the isolation effect in serial learning are suggested.