A NEW APPROACH TO THE CHARACTERIZATION OF SEQUENTIAL STRUCTURE IN MULTI‐TRIAL FREE RECALL USING HIERARCHICAL GROUPING ANALYSIS
Andrew F. Monk · British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology · 1976
Previous approaches to the assessment of subjective organization in multi‐trial free recall (MTFR) have depended upon the identification of sequential structure which is stable over two successive recall trials. While these techniques give adequate estimates of the degree of subjective organization they are incapable of revealing its content for two reasons. Firstly, the resultant characterizations contain considerable redundancy; and, secondly, they are highly susceptible to the operation of chance factors. The approach described in the present paper, hierarchical grouping analysis (HGA), appears to meet these criticisms. The possibilities extended by using HGA are demonstrated in an analysis of some experimental data which examines the relationship between semantic inter‐item associations and recall structure. Finally, the possibility of applying HGA in other domains is discussed.