High-priority event instructions affect implicit and explicit memory tests

Previous work has shown that instructing subjects to give special priority to one target event in a list enhances recall for that event, but impairs recall for the events immediately preceding it (Tulving, 1969). We examined the benefit of high-priority instructions, and the retrograde amnesia for previous items, in three experiments that included two explicit tests of memory (free recall and cued recall with word-stem cues) and an implicit test (word-stem completion). Experiments 1 and 2 revealed a beneficial effect of high-priority instructions on memory for the target events in both free recall and primed word-stem completion. Retrograde amnesia for previous events was either absent (Experiment 1) or modest (Experiment 2) in free recall; however, no evidence for amnesia occurred on the implicit test. In Experiment 3, we asked if the benefit of high-priority instructions on the implicit test was due to contamination from intentional recollection, by employing the logic of the retrieval-intentionality criterion via a levels-of-processing manipulation. The results showed a beneficial effect of high-priority instructions on free recall, word-stem cued recall, and word-stem completion. Level of processing affected the two explicit tests, but not the implicit test, indicating that it induced incidental retrieval. We conclude that the benefit of high-priority instructions occurred on all three tests used in these experiments. In contrast, the phenomenon of retrograde amnesia occurred in free recall, but not in primed word-stem completion.