‘‘levels of processing’’ section earlier in this chapter. The obvious educational
implication of transfer appropriate processing is that if schools want to increase
the odds that what students learn in school will help them solve problems later
in life, then schools should engage students in solving problems that resemble
those encountered outside of school. Students who demonstrate on examina-
tions that they remember the material are not necessarily going to be able to
use the material to solve problems they encounter later on.
Recognition versus Recall Another demonstration of the overlap principle is the
finding that, under most circumstances, people can recognize more accurately
than they can recall a past event (McDougall, 1904). A recognition test usually
supplies more information about the original event than does a recall test, be-
cause the correct answer to any memory question is contained in the recogni-
tion test. For example, subjects asked to recall as many names as they could
remember from their high school class that graduated 47 years earlier recalled
on average only about 20 names (about 30% of the class), but accurately recog-
nized about 45 names (about 65% of the class) (Bahrick, Bahrick, & Wittlinger,
1975).
It is possible, however, to devise situations for which people can recall what
they are unable to recognize (Watkins & Tulving, 1975; see Klatzky, 1980, for a
review). Such situations are characterized by a recall testing environment that
more closely resembles the original learning environment than does the recog-
nition testing environment.
In one experiment demonstrating recall without recognition (Nilsson, Law, &
Tulving, 1988), subjects were presented a list of famous names (e.g., George
Washington)inthecontextofdescriptivephrases(e.g.,‘‘Hewasthefirstin
a long line but the only one on horseback—George Washington’’ ). Seven days
later the subjects were given a recognition test in which a set of famous names
was presented. This set contained the previously studied names as well as foils
(e.g., Charles Darwin). Subjects had to indicate which names they had studied a
week earlier. Then subjects were given the descriptive phrases and had to recall
the famous names (e.g., ‘‘He was the first in a long line but the only one on
horseback—?’’ ). Subjects were often able to recall famous names that they did
not recognize.
14.4 Forgetting
Forgetting past experiences, if not in their entirety, at least in most of their de-
tail, seems the rule. Why do we so easily forget most of our past? Certainly, if
we fail to pay attention to certain information contained in an event then we
are unlikely to remember that information later on. Or if we are not motivated
to try to remember an event, or are not given enough information to enable us
to be sure what it is we are supposed to remember, then we are not likely to
remember the event.
Interference
Another important reason for forgetting, besides those mentioned above, is
that one’s memory for any given event from one’s past is undermined by the
344 R. Kim Guenther