Cue set size effects: sampling activated associates or cross-target interference?

Previous findings indicate that test cues linked to more associates (more knowledge) produce lower levels of recall than cues with fewer associates. One hypothesis attributes this effect to cross-target interference arising during retrieval on the assumption that cues with more associates are more likely to be indirectly connected to studied words other than the target. Another attributes the effect to sampling associates of the cue on the assumption that the probability of sampling the target declines as more associates are activated. Findings from four experiments showed that recall varied with cue set size, and, more importantly, that cue set size affected recall independently of the interference produced by cross-target connections. These results were interpreted as supporting a model that attributes cue set size effects to sampling processes associated with the intersection of the test cue and its associates with the target and its associates.