title: Using cumulative-recall curves to assess the extent of relational and item-specific processing.
abstract: Although distinguishing between item-specific and relational information has proved to be a useful approach for understanding a variety of important memory phenomena, finding measurement tools for assessing the amount and type of information processed has proven difficult. Using the repeated-testing procedure, Burns (1993) demonstrated that item gains (the recall of items on a later test that were not recalled on earlier tests) and item losses (the forgetting of items on a later test that were recalled on earlier tests) reflected differences in amount of item-specific and relational information processed, respectively. Although several researchers have begun to use the measures with apparent success, the present research demonstrates that the accuracy of the item-gain measure is largely dependent on the rather arbitrary choice of recall-test length. We also show that a related but alternative measure, analysis of cumulative-recall curves, avoids some of the shortcomings of the item gain and loss measures. Moreover, we provide evidence for the generality of the cumulative-recall approach by demonstrating its effectiveness in mixed-list designs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Union College, Schenectady, NY 12308, USA. burns@union.edu
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Burns
authors.forename: Theresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hebert
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D011581:Psychological Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity