Part-set cueing and the generation effect: An evaluation of a two-mechanism account of part-set cueing

Abstract

The part-set cueing effect refers to paradoxical memory impairment often observed when elements from a set of items appear as ostensibly helpful retrieval cues during testing of memory for the set. We tested predictions of a two-mechanism account of part-set cueing—that, without enhanced relational processing, standard encoding leaves items susceptible to cueing-induced inhibition that persists after cues are removed; and that increasing item-specific encoding increases this persisting inhibition. Experiment 1 used antonym generation during study to increase item-specific encoding relative to standard encoding. Tests using item-specific probes revealed greater cueing-induced impairment for the generation condition, as predicted. However, when part-set cues were later removed, this impairment abated significantly in the generation condition and even disappeared in the standard-encoding condition—effects not predicted by the two-mechanism account, challenging its completeness. In Experiment 2, we ruled out an artifactual explanation of these results by replicating previously reported persisting impairment on free recall tests.

Keywords:

• Generation effect
• Part-set cueing
• Retrieval inhibition
• Strategy disruption
• Suppression

Notes

¹Because context words were allowed to share first letters with antonyms, participants intruded context words during the first-letter-cued recall test on 4.6% of the test trials. This rate did not vary as a function of encoding task, cueing, test, or any interaction of those variables, Fs < 2.3, ps>.13, and there was a similar pattern of recall whether we included or excluded test items that shared a first letter with a context word.

²A reviewer of an earlier version of this paper proposed this explanation.