Abstract
The effects of rote, repetitive (primary) rehearsal duration and the type of material to be rehearsed were examined in an incidental learning procedure, the distractor recall task. Each trial consisted of the presentation of four-digit number to be remembered immediately followed by the presentation of a single “distractor” word. Subjects (24 university students) were to repeat that word aloud until told to recall the number. After the last trial there was a final recall and recognition of these distractor words. As a result, increasing the duration of primary rehearsal improved recognition memory, but not recall, independently of the familiarity values of words. These results were explained by two-stage theory of recall. Further, dichotomy of rehearsal was discussed in terms of the distinction between intra- and inter-item processing.
