The Role of Category Size in Continuous Recall from Semantic Memory

Abstract

Summary The time to recognize a word as an exemplar of a category has been found to be little influenced by the size of the category. In contrast, three recall studies have indicated that the rate of continuous recall of exemplars of a category is a function of the category's size. However, these recall studies used large categories which dealt with topics different from the small categories, confounding size effects with differences in stimulus meaning. The present study investigated the hypothesis that category size affects the rate of continuous recall while controlling the semantic characteristics of large and small categories. Thirty-six college students generated examples for one or the other member of 14 nested category pairs: e.g., Plants, Trees. The results showed first that the instantaneous rate of recall (words/sec) at any time was greater for large categories than for small categories except when t = o. Second, the function's time constant (defined as the time to approach producing approximately 63% of the category's recall size) was directly related to the size of the category. Third, the estimated number of items retrieved with unlimited time was related to the complete size of categories by a power function. Thus, several aspects of continuous recall of a category's exemplars are a function of the category's size, findings which are relevant to current psychosemantic theories.