ITEM GAINS AND LOSSES DURING HYPERMNESIC RECALL - IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ITEM-SPECIFIC RELATIONAL INFORMATION DISTINCTION

Klein, Loftus, Kihlstrom, and Aseron (1989) suggested that the literature on hypermnesia (improved recall across repeated tests) could be explained by reference to the item-specific-relational information distinction. They showed that conditions designed to promote individual-item processing produced more item gains across repeated tests, whereas conditions that induced relational processing resulted in fewer item losses across tests. Five experiments generally replicate the Klein et al. results and provide evidence that item gains and losses can be used to index amount of individual-item and relational processing in a variety of experimental contexts. It is suggested that the item gain and loss measures of individual-item and relational processing may be more appropriate than the currently used measures in some experimental situations.