Examining the relationship between free recall and immediate serial recall: The role of list length, strategy use, and test expectancy

Recent findings suggest that the immediate free recall (IFR) of short lists is similar to immediate serial recall (ISR). These findings were obtained using a methodology in which participants did not know the list length in advance of each list, and this uncertainty may have encouraged participants to adopt atypical recall strategies. Therefore, we examined whether prior knowledge of the list length was important in obtaining these recent findings with IFR (Experiment 1) and ISR (Experiment 2). In both experiments, we presented participants with lists of between 1 and 15 words and found that advance knowledge of the list length resulted in little or no difference in recall performance. In our final experiment (Experiment 3), we manipulated test expectancy. We found that participants who were post-cued to recall using either IFR or ISR recalled in similar ways to those who were pre-cued to recall using IFR or ISR, respectively. We argue that lists of words are encoded in similar ways on the two tasks, that the list length and task instructions determine the initial output order, and that the initial recall and the instructions determine the resultant serial position curves.

► Immediate free recall of short lists is similar to immediate serial recall.
► Recall is relatively unaffected by advance knowledge of the list length.
► Recall is relatively unaffected by advance knowledge of the type of test.
► Immediate free recall and immediate serial recall differ primarily in retrieval.