Recognition Priming Effects Following Serial Learning: Implications for Episodic Priming Effects

Experiment 1 found that recognition of an item could be facilitated if it were preceded on the recognition list by the item that preceded it during learning. Experiment 2 showed that this priming effect depended on evidence that the prime could elicit the target during learning. These results are interpreted by elaborating on the perspective of episodic memory as a record of encoding processes. Items encoded as part of the same cognitive episode are said to be stored within the same representation. Later recognition priming is possible when the target and prime are both encoded within the same episode. This framework is then extended to episodic tasks in general, and in particular to recognition priming effects that are observed after map learning.