Recognition and recall as measures of retention on a paired associate task

Widely disparate findings concerning recognition and recall as indicants of retention have been reported by several independent researchers. To clarify the problem a list of 8 items, composed of letter-number pairs, was presented 5 times by the study-test method to 160 college undergraduates. The list was learned by either recognition or recall and then tested by either a recognition or recall test after 24 hour and 72 hour intervals. Ss were placed in 1 of 5 categories dependent upon the trial the S achieved 100% criterion. A 4 factor ANOV showed recognition scores to be significantly higher at the .05 level than recall scores