Spacing judgments as an index of study-phase retrieval

Investigated the hypothesis that the ability of Ss to judge the distance between 2 presentations of a word in a list reflects study-phase retrieval of the trace of the 1st presentation of the word by its 2nd presentation. 2 experiments were conducted using a total of 153 Ss recruited through a university newspaper. Exp I supported the hypothesis by demonstrating that the accuracy of spacing judgments for associatively related pairs of words, like that for repeated words, was high compared to that for unrelated words. Exp II used spacing judgments to measure retrieval upon repetition of a homograph. In 3 conditions, context words accompanying a homograph on its 2 presentations were either the same, biased the same meaning, or biased different meanings. In all 3 conditions, later spacing judgments were more accurate than in an unrelated-word control. Accuracy did not depend on whether the 2 context words biased the same meaning or different meanings of the homograph.