Effects of studying a subset of familiar items on recall of the remaining items: The John Brown effect

Abstract

Prior to attempting recall of the 50 U.S. states, two experimental groups studied subsets of 25 states each while the control group read unrelated material. The experimental groups differed in that one group studied the 25 states most easily recalled, as determined by norms, and the other group studied the 25 most difficult states. Interference was found for the states not studied, replicating Brown’s (1968) findings. In Experiment 2, Ss were required to recall the studied states before recalling those not studied. Again, recall of the subset not studied was poorer for the experimental groups. Output interference was implicated in discussing the findings.