Extraversion, activation and the recall of prose

Subjects were divided into four groups on the basis of their scores on the extraversion scale of the Eysenck Personality Inventory and the general activation scale of Thayer's Activation-Deactivation Adjective Check List. A prose passage was presented to subjects who then attempted to recall it under strict instructions to avoid errors. There were significant interactions between activation and extraversion for the error data, and the phrase-correct data, with moderate levels of arousal (high activation extraverts and low activation introverts) being associated with the fewest errors and the most phrases correctly recalled. It was concluded that the study showed the importance of arousal to recall performance, possibly due to the effects of arousal on retrieval processes.