Imagery Nonvividness and the Mnemonic Advantage of Bizarreness

Previous research has demonstrated that bizarre elaboration can facilitate free recall despite the fact that such elaboration evokes less vivid mental imagery than does common elaboration. The present study investigated the possibility that the nonvividness of bizarre imagery enhances the distinctiveness of a bizarre representation and thus serves as a cue that facilitates recall. The results indicated that bizarre information required significantly more time to comprehend and image, and that bizarre imagery was significantly less vivid than common imagery. However, a correlational analysis indicated that the relationship between bizarre and common vividness differences and bizarre and common recall differences was not in the direction predicted by the nonvividness-cue hypothesis. It is concluded that bizarre-imagery nonvividness is related to a reduction in the magnitude of the bizarre recall advantage.

A Further Examination of the Bizarre Imagery Mnemonic: Its Effectiveness with Mixed Context and Delayed Testing

To assess further the effectiveness of bizarre imagery, undergraduates were exposed to a variety of paired-associate, stimulus contexts (unmixed normal, unmixed bizarre, and mixed) and then were tested at one of three retention intervals (0, 3, or 5 days). Consistent with our earlier findings, elements within the mixed context were recalled the best at both the 0- and 3-day intervals. Interestingly, the unmixed bizarre items improved performance as much as mixed ones when testing occurred at 5 days, suggesting that bizarre-only elements needed sufficient time to develop their distinctive memory traces.