Subject strategies in part-whole transfer in free recall

The effect of instructing subjects as to the nature of the relationship between the two lists of a part-to-whole transfer situation has been studied in a number of cases with conflicting results. Some studies have shown that instructions to the subject produce positive transfer, while in others only slight effects from instructions may be noted. Detailed analysis of subject output protocols in a part-to-whole experiment demonstrated that subjects who maintained their List 1 organization showed positive transfer to the whole list. Reanaiysis of several studies in the literature supported the conclusion that subjects who maintain their organization will show positive transfer under these conditions. In a second experiment, it is demonstrated that subjects can be instructed to maintain their List 1 organization during List 2 and that such instruction enhances the amount of positive transfer obtained. The results are viewed as consistent with a hierarchical version of an organization theory for recall performance.