Abstract
Retrieval effort as a function of type of information and accessibility of recall. This study analyses the effect of the type of recall (autobiographical, public events, academic concepts), and retention interval (concurrent information or with a month delay), on two dependent variables: number of perceptual details (remember versus know) and cognitive effort. We expect that the access to a recall that belongs to a highly structured knowledge (e.g. our autobiographical memory) will require less cognitive effort than one that does not, and an inverse relationship between this effort and the number of perceptual details of the recall. Our results support this point of view. Morever our data show that as the learning of academic concepts increases the cognitive effort to recall them is reduced.
