Schwanenflugel, P. J., Akin, C., & Luh, W. (1992). Context availability and the recall of abstract and concrete words. Memory & Cognition, 20(1), 96-104.

Schwanenflugel, P.; Akin, C.; Luh, W.

1992

Schwanenflugel, P. J., Akin, C., & Luh, W. (1992). Context availability and the recall of abstract and concrete words. Memory & Cognition, 20(1), 96-104.

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This study tested the predictions of an automatic-imagery, strategic-imagery (SI), and context-availability (CTA) hypothesis of concreteness effects in free recall in 3 experiments with 256 undergraduates. Recall of abstract and concrete words controlled for rated CTA was compared with the typical situation in which CTA is confounded with imageability. In Exp 1, a directed intentional-recall task produced concreteness effects in recall. Exp 2 compared concreteness effects in recall following 3 orienting tasks: imagery rating, CTA rating, and a directed intentional-memory task. Concreteness effects in the CTA-controlled condition were found following the imagery-rating and the directed intentional-memory tasks. In Exp 3, Ss reported the strategies used to encode the list. Ss reporting showed concreteness effects for words controlled for rated CTA. An SI view of concreteness effects in free recall is supported.

The pattern of recall across conditions in experiment 1 causes problems for a context-availability view of concreteness effects. In particular, this hypothesis predicts that when the accessibility of contextual information from prior knowledge is controlled, there would be no concreteness effects in recall. In conflict with this prediction, a significant 12.1% superiority in recall was demonstrated for concrete words relative to abstract words when context availability was controlled. The concreteness effects in each of the context-availability conditions, then, seem to be more specifically attributable to the imageabilty of the words than to the availability of contextual information.

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