ABSTRACT
Implicit (or indirect) measures of retention are usually contrasted with explicit (or direct) measures (Graf & Schacter, 1985; Segal, 1966). Explicit tests are those on which subjects are told to recollect recent events, whereas on implicit tests subjects are told to perform a task and retention is measured by transfer from prior experience. The typical strategy followed by researchers investigating the relation between these tests is to contrast performance on an explicit measure of retention (usually recall or recognition) with performance on an implicit measure (usually repetition priming in one of several tasks) as a function of independent variables under experimental control or as a function of subject characteristics. The general finding that has excited so much interest, and which is probably responsible for the production of this book, is that many variables produce dissociations between these two classes of measures. Often a variable will have large effects in an explicit memory test, but little or no effect in an implicit test (e.g., Jacoby & Dallas, 1981; Warrington & Weiskrantz, 1970). Sometimes a variable will have one effect on an explicit test and the opposite effect on an implicit test (e.g., Blaxton, 1989; Jacoby, 1983b; Weldon & Roediger, 1987). We now have a large body of evidence showing such dissociations between these classes of tests (see Richardson-Klavehn & Bjork, 1988; Schacter, 1987).
