title: High-priority event instructions affect implicit and explicit memory tests.
abstract: Previous work has shown that instructing subjects to give special priority to one target event in a list enhances recall for that event, but impairs recall for the events immediately preceding it (Tulving, 1969). We examined the benefit of high-priority instructions, and the retrograde amnesia for previous items, in three experiments that included two explicit tests of memory (free recall and cued recall with word-stem cues) and an implicit test (word-stem completion). Experiments 1 and 2 revealed a beneficial effect of high-priority instructions on memory for the target events in both free recall and primed word-stem completion. Retrograde amnesia for previous events was either absent (Experiment 1) or modest (Experiment 2) in free recall; however, no evidence for amnesia occurred on the implicit test. In Experiment 3, we asked if the benefit of high-priority instructions on the implicit test was due to contamination from intentional recollection, by employing the logic of the retrieval-intentionality criterion via a levels-of-processing manipulation. The results showed a beneficial effect of high-priority instructions on free recall, word-stem cued recall, and word-stem completion. Level of processing affected the two explicit tests, but not the implicit test, indicating that it induced incidental retrieval. We conclude that the benefit of high-priority instructions occurred on all three tests used in these experiments. In contrast, the phenomenon of retrograde amnesia occurred in free recall, but not in primed word-stem completion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque 87131-1161, USA.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Guynn
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Roediger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000648:Amnesia, Retrograde / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D012691:Serial Learning