MEMORY FOR COMMON AND BIZARRE STIMULI - A STORAGE-RETRIEVAL ANALYSIS

We tested the hypothesis that common stimuli are stored in memory bett er than bizarre stimuli are. Subjects memorized a series of noun pairs embedded within 20 common or bizarre sentences. By using a between-li st design, free and cued recall, and intentional-learning instructions , we were able to obtain a commonness effect (i.e., a recall advantage for the common sentences). Riefer and Rouder's (1992) multinomial pro cessing-tree model for measuring storage and retrieval was applied to the data, which revealed that the recall advantage for common sentence s was due to storage and not retrieval processes. We propose a two-fac tor theory: that common items are stored better in memory, but that bi zarre items are retrieved better from memory. This storage-retrieval e xplanation does a good job of accounting for a number of findings asso ciated with the bizarreness effect.