The Role of Opportunities for Recall in Learning to Retrieve

Three theories of learning hold that test trials are equally effective on errors or successes; that test trials are effective only for successfully recalled material; or, by Restle's strategy-selection model, that presentations are effective only following failures of recall. The implications of these three theories were developed for the parameters of a two-stage Markov model of learning. An application of the model to the RTT paradigm in free recall provided support for the strategyselection theory, as did two experiments involving error-contingent presentation. The paper concludes with a theory relating organi7ational aspects of free recall to the strategy-selection theory.