Scanning and decision processes in recognition memory.

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Abstract
Assigned 5 male and 15 female university students to learn lists of 3, 6, 9, 12, or 15 letters. Ss then watched series of 65 letters and indicated as quickly as possible whether each letter was or was not included in a memorized list. Decision time was a linear function of the number of letters in the list, and the slope of the "no" function was somewhat steeper than that of the "yes" function. Variations in stimulus and response frequency affected decision time only slightly. Results support the notion of a high-speed scanning process in recognition memory, even when the memorized lists exceed the memory span. It is suggested that this process is not one of search, but serves simply to prime individual elements of the memorized list. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

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