JOURNAL OF VERBAL LEARNING AND VERBAL BEHAVIOR 4, 175-179 (1965) Priority of Free Recall of Newly Learned Items ~

Data are presented from three independently conducted free-recall experiments, rep-resenting a variety of procedures and learning materials, which demonstrate that newly-learned items tend to be recalled prior to those items which have been recalled correctly on pre,vious trials, in sharp contrast with the widespread assumption that order of free recall directly reflects item strength. As a corollary to Marbe's law, which states that overall frequency or strength of free word associations by the group is inversely related to latency of emission by individual Ss, it has been generally assumed that the order in which items are given in free recall directly reflects item strength, S ° that stronger items tend to be recalled prior to weaker items. However, both Marbe's law and the experimental evidence offered in its support (Osgood, 1953) have been based largely on studies of word association. Research pertain-ing to actual free recall of individual items appears to be limited to studies demonstrating that (a) frequently recalled English word