Part-list cuing with and without item-specific probes:: The role of encoding

Part-list cuing-the detrimental effect of the presentation of a subset of studied items on recall of the remaining noncue items-was examined in three different study conditions and in the presence and absence of the noncues' initial letters serving as item-specific probes. With a single study trial, part-list cuing was observed both with and without item-specific probes. By contrast, when participants received two study-test cycles or interrelated list items to a common story, part-list cues were found to be detrimental only in the absence of item-specific probes, but not in their presence. These results indicate that the role of item-specific probes in part-list cuing depends on encoding. The findings are consistent with a recent two-mechanism account of part-list cuing (Bauml & Asian, 2006), according to which two different mechanisms mediate the effect in different encoding situations.