RECOGNITION OF SCRIPT-TYPICAL VERSUS SCRIPT-ATYPICAL INFORMATION - EFFECTS OF COGNITIVE ELABORATION

Memory for script-atypical information has been shown to be superior t o memory for script-typical information. Two explanations of this typi cality effect are evaluated: (1) the attention-elaboration hypothesis (AEH) and (2) the script-copy-plus-tag hypothesis (SCTH). The AEH clai ms that atypical information is recognized better because it attracts more attention and cognitive elaboration. According to the SCTH, memor y representations of script-based texts are established automatically and constitute a copy of the script plus tags for atypical events that facilitate later recognition. We investigated recognition memory and memory for the presentation form of typical and atypical items origina lly shown with versus without missing letters. Experiment 1 showed tha t presenting items in fragmentary form tends to improve recognition me mory mostly for highly typical items. Experiment 2 revealed that the s ize of this missing-letters effect is affected by the presentation for m of items preceding the target items during acquisition. For fragment ed items preceded by other fragmented items, the typicality effect vir tually disappeared. Memory for the presentation form of items was gene rally moderate. These results are readily explained within the AEH fra mework and pose some problems for the SCTH.