Recognition Memory for Targets From a Scanned Word List

A word list was designed so that half its words would denote targets when any of a number of target classes were defined. After scanning this list for targets, subjects were unexpectedly tested on their ability to recognize the words they had scanned. Recognition memory depended on how targets had been defined: a search for members of a semantically defined target class resulted in better recognition than a search for targets structurally defined. As a group, targets were better recognized than non‐targets after a search for words that ( a ) contained the letter A, ( b ) denoted living things, or ( c ) denoted geographical locations. Recognition memory declined by as much as 75 per cent in d' from the first quarter of testing to the last. Items prior to a word's input as well as decisions prior to its testing diminished its recognizability, whereas items following its input exerted comparatively little deleterious effect.