ABSTRACT
The preliminary studies to be described had the objective of discovering whether it would be feasible to employ the techniques of free recall with the subjects with whom we were to deal. The major aim of Experiment 1 was to discover whether significant clustering (O-E) and inter-trial repetition (ITR) (O-E) did occur with subjects of low vocabulary age (VA) given random order presentation. The primary aim of Experiments 2 and 3 was to test the hypothesis that the clustering and ITR measures would function differently as dependent variables in response to the same independent variable. The results of Experiments 1, 2 and 3 suggested that clustering was a viable dependent variable with subjects of the ability level employed in these experiments. Experiments 5 and 6 endeavoured to evidence secondary processes by providing superordinate cues after each item. Experiment 5 provided different types of cue at presentation, while Experiment 6 provided verbal cues at presentation, at recall, and at both presentation and recall.
