Item concreteness vs spatial organization as predictors of visual imagery

The relative contributions of item concreteness and interitem spatial organization to recall processes were studied by attempting to induce modality-specific interference between recall and response. Separate groups of 12 Ss learned lists of items that varied in physical or referential visual characteristics. They later signaled information about them either vocally or via a visually guided response. Some ways of presenting lists for learning that are traditionally regarded as increasing reliance on mediating imagery were effective in generating conflict between recall and the visually guided response. This effectiveness was limited to presentation conditions and list types that introduced spatial organization into the stimulus material. The concreteness of individual items was not useful in predicting visual conflict.