Influences of recollective experience and self-other differences in episodic retrieval on a following recall test

This study investigated influences of recollective experience and self-other differences in episodic retrieval on a following recall test. In the learning phase, subjects were assigned to either self-episodic or other-episodic retrieval condition. In both conditions, subjects were asked to retrieve an episode associated with each trait word, and reported "Remember", "Know" or "No". Immediately after the phase, they performed an arithmetic problem for five minutes, and then were given the surprise recall task. "Remember"-reported words were better recalled than "Know"-reported words. And there was no difference in recall between self-episodic and other-episodic retrieval conditions. These results suggest that an existence of recollective experience in episodic retrieval during encoding, produces better recall performance.