Rack 'Em and Crack 'Em: Free vs. Cued Recall

Let's start with an activity. Study the word pairs below and try to commit them to memory. Order isn't important, but matching the pairs together is.

1. bicycle : bear
2. shoe : pill
3. face : engine
4. street : monkey
5. coffee : satellite
6. dragon : boat

Memory Test A. Now, scroll your screen so you can't see the original list of words. You goal is to list as many of the pairs as you can remember. 

1. _______ : _______
2. _______ : _______
3. _______ : _______
4. _______ : _______
5. _______ : _______
6. _______ : _______ 

Memory Test B. Let's try again, but this time I will give you one of the words from each pair, and your job is to recall its mate. 

1. _______ : bear
2. shoe : _______
3. face : _______
4. _______ : monkey
5. coffee : _______ 
6. _______ : boat

Memory Test C. I know you've probably have this list memorized by now, but let's try one last time. I will give you one word, and then you have to pick the matching word from a list.

1. _______ : bear
1. slow
2. bicycle
3. bridge
2. shoe : _______
1. pill
2. plug
3. capital
3. face : _______
1. ladle
2. battery
3. engine
4. _______ : monkey
1. keyboard
2. street
3. insurance
5. coffee : _______
1. satellite
2. heater
3. shovel
6. _______ : boat
1. bread
2. goggles
3. dragon

How many did you get right? Which memory test was the easiest? Which test was the hardest?

"'Cause I'm as free as a bird now." --Lynyrd Skynyrd

The purpose of this demonstration is to highlight the distinction between three different types of memory. The first task is called free recall because there isn't anything in your surrounding environment to help you remember the answer. You have to do it straight from memory. If I ask you for your social security number, then that would be another example of a free recall task.

The second task is different because you have a clue. Cued recall is different from free recall because there is some information in the environment that will assist you in remembering. For example, I might ask you, "What was the former name of the city 'Istanbul'?" If you're familiar with the song by the band They Might Be Giants, then my humming the tune might help you remember that Istanbul was once Constantinople. The tune of that song is a powerful cue for the lyrics and (thankfully) the lyrics contain an accurate answer to my question. If you're like me, cued recall is almost always easier than free recall.

The third type of memory is related to another useful concept in memory research: Recognition memory. You might not be able to recall the title of the movie starring both Tom Cruise and Paul Newman. But if you see a list of movies (e.g., Days of Thunder, The Color of Money, Rain Man, or Top Gun), then you might recognize the right answer. The reason why this difference is useful is that the knowledge is stored somewhere in long-term memory, but the route to that piece of knowledge is blocked or unavailable. Being able to recognize the right answer demonstrates that the separation of storage and retrieval in our simple model of memory. 

The STEM Connection

The cued vs. free vs. recognition memory distinctions have interesting implications for the design of educational assessments. When designing an assessment, an educator might ask if it is important for the student to be able to recognize or recall a chunk of knowledge in isolation or during problem solving. The assessment, of course, depends on the educational objective. If we play this out, here is how the same piece of knowledge might be assessed differently, based on the educational objective:

A. Recognition

1. The measure of a right angle is ______ degrees.
1. 30
2. 60
3. 90
4. 120

B. Cued Recall

1. Calculate the measure of the unknown angle. [1]

C. Free Recall

1. The measure of a right angle is ______ degrees.

In all three cases, the intent of this assessment item is to determine if the student has encoded and stored in long-term memory the declarative chunk: The measure of a right angle is equal to ninety degrees. Because you can assess the availability of this declarative chunk in many different ways, deciding on the format largely depends on how rigorously you want to assess the student's understanding. I think most practitioners would agree that the list above is ordered in terms of rigor. In other words, it is easier to recognize the answer than it is to recall it. Both cued recall and recognition are easier than free recall. 

An even more rigorous method would be to assess the student's understanding during problem solving. This would require that the student show each step of his or her solution. I'm imaging a problem like this:

Designing assessments is difficult work. But knowing the differences in the types of memory needed to answer the question can help in creation of useful assessment items. 


Share and Enjoy! 

Dr. Bob

For More Information

[1] I'm doing a bit of handwaving here. I'm assuming that the shape of the angle and the right-angle symbol is enough of a cue to help the student recall the answer. In other words, during the learning phase, the student made the association between the diagram, its symbol, and the measure of the angle.