Temporal associations supporting repetitions in free recall
Lynn J. Lohnas · 2024
A primary goal of memory research is to characterize how memories are encoded, including changes to memory with repeated experience. The present studies use a novel approach to examine representations of spaced repeated items in free recall. In particular, transitions to the repeated item provide insight into the salient associations supporting its recall. Critically, extant theories of the spacing effect make qualitatively distinct predictions of transitions between a repeated item’s temporal neighbors from its first presentation versus from its second presentation. The results provide some support for retrieved context theory, which assumes that each studied item is associated with a slowly drifting context and repetition evokes study-phase retrieval of the context state. Implications for other theories and future research are also discussed.