REPEATED TESTING - A TECHNIQUE FOR ASSESSING THE ROLES OF ELABORATIVEAND ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESSING IN THE REPRESENTATION OF SOCIAL KNOWLEDGE

A new technique for evaluating the roles of elaborative and organizati onal processing in the representation of social information is describ ed. Although these concepts have found increasing application in theor ies of social knowledge, most investigations of elaboration and organi zation have relied on measures that can lead to interpretive ambiguiti es. Two studies show how analysis of the item-gain and item-loss compo nents of multitrial free recall provides a means for assessing the con tributions of elaborative and organizational processing while avoiding many of the problems found with existing measures.