The effect of syntactic structure on nonordered recall

The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that the facilitative effect of syntactic structure on the recall of nonsense sentences is due solely to the fact that S is relieved of the necessity of storing information concerning item order. It was predicted that if Ss were not required to recall the items in order, then the facilitative effect should disappear. Four types of lists were used, representing combinations of two variables: (a) whether the list was structured, and (b) whether bound morphemes were present. Under conditions of nonordered recall, a facilitation effect was still apparent, and thus the hypothesis was rejected.