Episodic Memory: Effortful Phenomena

Abstract

Memory for words in a free-recall list is an example of rehearsal-dependent memory. That is, memory performance is contingent on how proficiently to-be-remembered information is rehearsed. Such memory is ordinarily intentional, although, as we discovered in Chapter 6 (pp. 333–336), incidental memory may be as proficient as intentional memory when an orienting task forces the use of the same kinds of encoding processes engaged in during intentional memory. Rehearsal-dependent memory requires cognitive effort, and it is therefore often called “effortful” memory. Being effortful, it calls upon the organism’s limited cognitive resources and is therefore likely to be affected adversely by whatever decrement occurs in those resources with aging. A number of encoding and retrieval phenomena will be examined in this chapter. Many of them involve the kinds of list-memory tasks described in Chapter 6. However, others involve memory for discourse, such as the content of sentences, paragraphs, and longer passages.