A Retrieved Context Model of Serial Recall and Free Recall

Abstract A full characterization of memory must include how participants use exogenous and endogenous cues to guide retrieval. In free recall, in which endogenous cues play a large role, retrieved context theories have emerged as a leading explanation of data on the dynamics of memory search (Lohnas & Healey, Psychology of Learning and Motivation , 75 , 157–199, 2021). More recently, Logan and colleagues have advanced a retrieved context model to explain data on serial recall and motor production (Logan, Psychological Review, 125 (4), 453–485, 2018, Psychological Review, 128 (1), 1–44, 2021; Logan & Cox, Psychological Review, 128 (6), 1197–1205, 2021, Psychological Review, 130 (6), 1672–1687, 2023; Osth & Hurlstone, Psychological Review , 130 (2), 213–245, 2023). Comparisons of recall transitions have further highlighted similarities among these tasks (e.g., Bhatarah et al., Memory & Cognition , 36 (1), 20–34, 2008; Golomb et al., Memory & Cognition , 36 (5), 947–956, 2008). Here, I evaluate retrieved context theory’s ability to simultaneously account for data from these classic recall procedures. I show how a serial version of the context maintenance and retrieval model (termed sCMR) can account for dissociations between serial position curves and temporal clustering effects. I also show how sCMR can account for grouping effects using similar assumptions across recall procedures. The sCMR model provides a common theoretical framework to harmonize the disparate phenomena studied using these classic memory procedures, but also reveals the distinctions between serial and free recall through their relative dependence on different model-based mechanisms.