REPETITION EFFECT - A MEMORY-DEPENDENT PROCESS

In choice reaction time (RT) studies it has commonly been found that RT to a repeated stimulus is faster than to nonrepeated stimuli. The first two experiments tested the hypothesis that this repetition effect is a short-term memory phenomenon and that an increased time interval between stimuli or an interpolated filler task between successive stimuli would abolish the effect. This hypothesis was not supported. A third experiment suggested, instead, that the repetition effect was due to stimulus anticipation and the saving in memory search time with correct anticipations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.