Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

The set size effect refers to the decline in memory performance as the number of to-be-remembered items increases. However, memory retrieval in everyday life is often fast and accurate, suggesting the existence of factors that support efficient retrieval. One such factor may be repetition of items in memory. Theoretical views differ in how repetitions affect memory representations. Single-stronger image views suggest that each repetition strengthens an existing memory trace without increasing effective set size. Multiple-image views suggest that each repetition creates separate memory traces, inflating effective set size. In this study, we used a similarity-based sequential sampling model to generate hypotheses distinguishing these two views and tested them in a cued-recall paradigm. Results showed a robust set size effect on recall accuracy and a main effect of repetition on response times and accuracy, but no interaction. These results suggest that repetitions strengthen existing memory traces, without alleviating set size effects.