Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Relational and item-specific information: trade-off and redundancy

J Engelkamp1, U Biegelmann, M A McDaniel

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of the Saarland, Saarbruecken, Germany. engelkamp@tz.uni-sb.de

Memory (Hove, England)
|August 26, 1998
PubMed
Summary

Memory research shows that category size impacts relational information but not item-specific information. Encoding strategies, not just category size, influence memory recall.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

What is minimal about predictive inferences?

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2002
Same author

Many-to-one and one-to-many associative learning in a naturalistic task.

Journal of experimental psychology. Applied·2001
Same author

Use of situational judgment tests to predict job performance: a clarification of the literature.

The Journal of applied psychology·2001
Same author

Varying the importance of a prospective memory task: differential effects across time- and event-based prospective memory.

Memory (Hove, England)·2001
Same author

The stability of validity coefficients over time: Ackerman's (1988) model and the general aptitude test battery.

The Journal of applied psychology·2001
Same author

Prospective memory and aging: forgetting intentions over short delays.

Psychology and aging·2001

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Human Memory

Background:

  • The study investigates memory encoding theories, specifically the trade-off and redundancy hypotheses.
  • These hypotheses, proposed by Hunt and Seta (1984), concern relational and item-specific information processing.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To empirically test the trade-off and redundancy hypotheses in memory recall.
  • To examine how category size and orienting tasks influence relational and item-specific information encoding.

Main Methods:

  • Two experiments were conducted using categorized lists of varying sizes.
  • Participants received either categorizing or pleasantness-rating instructions.
  • Memory performance was assessed using free recall and recognition tests.

Main Results:

Related Experiment Videos

  • The trade-off hypothesis was not supported; relational information increased with category size, but item-specific information did not decrease.
  • The redundancy hypothesis was also not confirmed.
  • Relational encoding was enhanced by congruent orienting tasks and list structure.
  • Item-specific encoding was independent of category size and increased with focused instructions.

Conclusions:

  • Memory recall is influenced by more than just the additive interplay of relational and item-specific information.
  • Encoding strategies and task instructions play a significant role in memory performance, independent of category size effects.