Short-Term Retention as a Function of Recall Point Coding

Recall is facilitated if items to be stored are easily coded into familiar chunks. The means of coding the items is usually obvious at the time they are presented. The purpose of the present study was to learn if recall was facilitated when the basis for coding a stored item was delayed until the time of recall. The results indicated a substantial improvement in recall as the appropriateness of the recall point for the stored item was increased. This improvement varied inversely with the storage requirements of the task.