The contributions of encoding, retention, and recall to the Hebb effect

Abstract

The article reports an experiment testing whether the Hebb repetition effect*the gradual improvement
of immediate serial recall when the same list is repeated several times*depends on overt recall of the
repeated lists. Previous reports which suggest that recall is critical confound the recall manipulation with
retention interval. The present experiment orthogonally varies retention interval (0 or 9 s) and whether
the list is to be recalled after the retention interval. Hebb repetition learning is assessed in a final test
phase. A repetition effect was obtained in all four experimental conditions; it was larger for recalled than
non-recalled lists, whereas retention interval had no effect. The results show that encoding is sufficient to
generate cumulative long-term learning, which is strengthened by recall. Rehearsal, if it takes place in the
retention interval at all, does not have the same effect on long-term learning as overt recall.