Memorial consequences of automatized encoding

Exp I tracked the acquisition of skilled reading as 12 undergraduates read as many as 160 pages of geometrically inverted text. The logarithm of reading time decreased linearly as a function of the logarithm of amount of practice, and performance on inverted text approached performance on normal text remarkably rapidly. Exp II assessed the consequence for memory of skill at reading. 8 undergraduates unpracticed at reading inverted text remembered for lengthy intervals the inverted sentences they read; when Ss acquired skill with the typography, their memory for inverted sentences was poorer. Results are interpreted in terms that emphasize an operational basis to memory--pattern-analyzing procedures rather than conscious contents. This view is contrasted with 3 other accounts of recognition. (26 ref)