Associative asymmetry in probed recall of serial lists

For pairs of meaningful items (e.g., words), recall accuracy is nearly identical for forward and backward probes. That is, after studying an A-B pair, subjects can recall A given B as well as they can recall B given A (Kahana, 2002). To assess whether this symmetry property is unique to pairs, we investigated the effects of study direction on probed recall of word triples and serial lists. Two experiments revealed a forward-recall advantage in both triples and serial lists. In addition, compound cues produced better recall than did single-item adjacent cues, which, in turn, produced better recall than did remote cues. These findings suggest a discontinuity between the associative processes supporting memory for pairs and those supporting memory for sequences of three or more items.