Contiguity is limited in free recall

TL;DR

This paper critically examines the law of contiguity in free recall, revealing that it only applies locally and inconsistently when analyzing detailed response probabilities across different list positions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis showing that the law of contiguity is limited in scope and does not hold universally in free recall tasks.

Findings

Contiguity applies only locally, not globally.

Conditional response probabilities vary across list positions.

The law of contiguity breaks down when examined in detail.

Abstract

Does the "law of contiguity" apply to free recall? I find that conditional response probabilities, often used as evidence for contiguity in free recall, have been displayed insufficiently, limiting the distance from the last item recalled, and only averaged over all items. When fully expanding the x-axis and examining the conditional response probabilities separately for the beginning, middle and end of the presented item list, I show that the law of contiguity applies only locally, even then only sometimes, and breaks down globally.