The Effects of Part-Set Cuing on the Recall of General Knowledge Information

Three experiments were conducted to investigate whether part-set cuing effects generalize to an educational style learning and assessment task. Mnemonic performance was assessed in terms of overall recall, item gain (reminiscence) and item loss (forgetting). In Study 1 we found that negative part-set cuing effects extended to the recall of general knowledge items. In Studies 2 and 3 we explored the boundaries of the observed partset cuing effect further, focusing on cue set size and cue set order. Greater inhibition was observed with 15 than 5 cue items (Study 2), and cue set order was found to affect item gain when cue set order was emphasized prior to or at retrieval (Study 3). The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of learning, recall and assessment.