Context-size and set size effects: The relevance of specific cues when searching long-term memory

Retrieving the relevant information from our knowledge and experiences poses a challengingproblem to our memory system. In this study, we explore how retrieval of specific pieces ofinformation from long-term memory is affected by the number of items to be rememberedand by the characteristics of retrieval cues. Specifically, we looked at whether an increasedsemantic similarity between cue and target improves recall and whether additional contextcues aid retrieval depending on their features and specificity. Using a cued-recall task, weobserved across three experiments that increasing the number of learned word pairs slowedretrieval times (RTs) and reduced retrieval accuracy. This effect was modulated by context: setsize effects did not extend across multiple, unrelated lists. Semantic similarity between cuesand targets consistently facilitated retrieval, independent of set size. Experiment 2 revealed noeffect of additional visual context cues on RTs, while Experiment 3 demonstrated that largersemantic contexts hindered recall, leading to slower RTs and lower accuracy compared to unre-lated lists. These findings are consistent with predictions from a model of memory portrayingretrieval as a sequential search through a semantic network.