Recall, recognition and relearning: WACE Year 12 Psychology Unit 3
“Remembering: the role of recall (free, serial and cued), recognition and re-learning in memory”
Recall is retrieving information with few or no cues: free recall (in any order), serial recall (in the original order) or cued recall (with prompts). Recognition is identifying information as familiar when it is presented, as in a multiple-choice question. Relearning is learning previously learned information again; if it is faster the second time, some of the memory was retained. Relearning is the most sensitive measure of retention, then recognition, then recall.
What this dot point is asking
The syllabus names five ways of remembering. You need to define each, identify which is used in a described task, rank them by sensitivity, and calculate a savings score for relearning.
Recall
Recall means retrieving stored information and reproducing it with few or no retrieval cues.
- Free recall: reproduce the information in any order. Example: writing down all the words you remember from a list.
- Serial recall: reproduce the information in the order it was presented. Example: saying the steps of a dance routine in order, or a phone number digit by digit.
- Cued recall: retrieval is helped by prompts (cues) that are linked to the information. Example: being given the first letter of each word, or a category name ("fruits").
Cued recall usually produces better scores than free recall, because the cue narrows the search of long-term memory, which supports the retrieval failure explanation of forgetting.
Recognition
Recognition means identifying information as having been encountered before when it is presented again. The information itself is the retrieval cue. Examples: a multiple-choice question, picking a face out of a line-up, recognising a song after the first few notes. Recognition is usually easier than recall, so it is a more sensitive measure of retention.
Relearning
Relearning (the savings method) means learning information again that was learned before. If it takes less time or fewer trials the second time, the difference shows that some information was retained, even if it could not be recalled or recognised. Hermann Ebbinghaus used relearning to measure his own memory for nonsense syllables.
Original learning and relearning can be measured in time or in number of trials.
Relearning is the most sensitive measure of retention, recognition is next, and recall is the least sensitive. A person may fail to recall something, recognise it, and relearn it quickly.
A French vocabulary test
- "Write down every French word for an animal that you learned this term." Free recall.
- "Write the days of the week in French, starting with Monday." Serial recall.
- "Chien means d_ _." Cued recall (the first letter is a cue).
- "Which of these means cat: chien, chat, cheval, oiseau?" Recognition.
- "Relearn the 20 words you forgot over the holidays." If it took 30 minutes originally and 12 minutes now, the savings score is (30 minus 12) / 30 x 100 = 60 percent.
Marker's note: the clue is always what the learner is given and what they must produce.
- Calling multiple-choice questions recall
- Choosing from options is recognition.
- Mixing up free and serial recall
- Serial recall must be in the original order.
- Dividing by the wrong number in the savings score
- Divide by the original learning time or trials, not the relearning figure.
- Saying relearning measures forgetting
- It measures retention: how much was saved.
Exam-style questions
Questions in the style of SCSA exam questions on this dot point, each with a worked answer. They are written by ExamExplained unless tagged "Past paper"; the year shows the paper a question is modelled on.
Original6 marksA student learned a list of 12 capital cities, then was tested a week later in three ways: writing down as many as possible in any order, writing them in the original order, and choosing each capital from four options. Name each type of retrieval and explain which is likely to produce the highest score.Show worked answer →
One mark for each type named correctly and three marks for the explanation.
Any order: free recall. Original order: serial recall. Choosing from options: recognition.
Highest score: recognition. Recognition only requires the learner to identify the correct item when it is presented, so the item itself acts as a strong retrieval cue. Free and serial recall require the learner to search memory and produce the information with few or no cues, and serial recall also requires the order. Recognition is therefore a more sensitive measure of retention and usually gives higher scores.
Original4 marksA student needed 20 minutes to learn a speech for the first time. A year later, after appearing to have forgotten it completely, they relearned it in 5 minutes. Calculate the savings score and explain what it shows.Show worked answer →
Two marks for the calculation and two marks for the explanation.
Calculation. Savings = (original learning time minus relearning time) divided by original learning time, times 100 = (20 minus 5) / 20 x 100 = 75 percent.
Explanation. Relearning took 75 percent less time than the first learning. Even though the student could not recall or recognise the speech, some of it was still stored in long-term memory. Relearning is the most sensitive measure of retention because it can detect information that other methods miss.
Practise this
Sources & how we know this
- Psychology ATAR course Year 12 syllabus (effective from 1 January 2024) — School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA)
- Psychology ATAR course: syllabus and support materials — SCSA
- Past ATAR course examinations — SCSA