Positional cues in serial learning: the spin-list technique

To test the hypothesis that serial learning depends largely on the encoding and retrieval of position-to-item associations, we examined whether people can learn spin lists on which starting position is randomly varied across successive learning trials. By turning positional information from a reliable cue into a source of intertrial interference, we expected learning to be greatly impaired. Contrary to this hypothesis, we found that participants were only slightly worse at serial learning under spin conditions and that this impairment reflects a substantial increase in initiation errors coupled with a small increase in intertrial forgetting. These data show that participants can effectively use nonpositional cues when positional cues are unreliable.