Encoding and cuing sounds and senses

Five experiments with a total of 152 undergraduates examined how retrieval cues operate, focusing on 2 problems of cuing research. The first attempted to determine the useful limits of information residing in the cues themselves. Retrieval cues may be effective only because they provide direct information about the encoded trace or, alternatively, because they can be used to reconstruct encoded information outside of their immediate domains. The 2nd problem concerns the nature of contextual cues appearing on the study trial and their relationship to what is encoded of spreading activation occurring on this trial. In these experiments, semantic and sensory set sizes of the target words were varied with recall cued by either the endings of the targets or by associatively related words. The targets were encoded without specific contextual cues, in the presence of associatively related context cues, or, finally, in the presence of rhyme-related context cues. Results suggest that retrieved information extends beyond the domain of features inherent in the test cue and that what is encoded in the study-trial activation is dependent on the nature of the context. (27 ref)