RECALL LATENCY FOLLOWING PURE-STRENGTH AND MIXED-STRENGTH LISTS - A DIRECT TEST OF THE RELATIVE STRENGTH MODEL OF FREE-RECALL

Strong items (e.g., those studied for a longer period of time) are not recalled faster than weak items in pure-strength lists. Although coun terintuitive, this result is consistent with a relative strength model of free recall. In mixed-strength lists, by contrast, the relative st rength model requires that strong items be recalled significantly fast er than weak items. A considerable body of recent research on this iss ue suggests that, if anything, the opposite may be true. Four experime nts reported here measured free-recall latency following pure- and mix ed-strength lists. Recall latency for strong items was consistently sh orter than that for weak items, but in mixed lists only. Moreover, as uniquely predicted by a relative strength model, in mixed lists, stron g items were recalled more quickly than items from a pure-strength lis t of the same size, and weak items were recalled mole slowly by a corr esponding amount.