Effects of rehearsal duration and level of processing on memory for words

Abstract

Type I rehearsal was studied in three experiments. Craik and Watkins (1973, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 12, 599–607) found that Type I rehearsal had no effect on long-term recall whereas Darley and Glass (1975, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 1, 454–458) found that Type I rehearsal increased long-term recall. In Experiments 1 and 2, tasks similar to those earlier used tasks both produced increases in free recall with increases in rehearsal duration. In Experiments 2 and 3, both level of processing and rehearsal duration were manipulated. In both experiments, recall increased with deeper levels of processing and with longer rehearsal intervals. However, the influence of these two variables was independent, that is, the interaction between level of processing and rehearsal duration was not significant. Level of processing and rehearsal duration might affect memory independently by strengthening different attributes.