Recall of common and uncommon words from pure and mixed lists

Recall of high- and low-frequency words in the conventional free recall paradigm was compared with recall of the same words when subjects were required to count backward before and after the presentation of each word. The addition of this distractor task was associated with a reduction in the high-frequency advantage otherwise found with pure lists containing only high- or low-frequency words. This finding is attributed to the disruption of organizational processes. In contrast, the low-frequency advantage found with conventional presentation of mixed lists, containing high- and low-frequency words, was not reduced by distraction. These findings indicate that the frequency effects obtained …