The role of motivation in producing hypermnesia (increased recall over
successive efforts) was examined in two studies using false feedback
to manipulate subjects' beliefs about their ability to perform memory
tasks. The first study demonstrated that feedback that heightened subj
ects' performance expectancies led to increased hypermnesic recall. Th
e second study demonstrated that this feedback-induced hypermnesia was
due to subjects' increased likelihood of persisting in their search f
or initially inaccessible items.