A deeper analysis of the spacing effect after "deep" encoding

The most common encoding strategies used by participants in word list studies include rehearsal and using the story mnemonic. Previous studies have suggested that with a rote-rehearsal strategy, mixed lists lead people to borrow rehearsal time from massed items and to give it to spaced items. Using rehearse-aloud methodologies, we demonstrated in Experiment 1 that the borrowing effect does not occur in the story mnemonic. However, the rates of rehearsal of individual items provided a good prediction of their subsequent recall rates, with spaced items being rehearsed more often in both mixed and pure lists. In experiment 2, we demonstrated that creating "story links" between items enhanced recall, but it did not affect the magnitude of the spacing effect. These results suggest that a massed-item deficit in encoding may underlie the spacing effect in the story mnemonic.