Recall of advertisements after various lapses of time

The recall of 90 magazine advertisements, consisting of a Brand, a Picture and a Slogan, was tested by presenting one of these components as cue and asking for the other two. The advertisements were tested in groups of ten, each group requiring a sequence of 30 test trials (10 advertisements × 3 cues). Backwards analysis of the sequences of responses—that is, starting with the last trial and comparing it successively with the responses on earlier trials—identified many responses as repetitions of previous errors, replicating many of the findings in Laming, D. On the recall of errors in recall. JSMC Brain Science, 2019, 3: 21, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333448328_On_The_Recall_Of_Errors_In_Recall. Nine different groups of advertisements were tested after various lapses of time up to 4 months. A comparison is made between the (short term) probability of repeating a previous error as a function of lag within a single test sequence and the (longer term) probability of retrieving an advertisement as a function of elapsed time. Both these empirical relationships can be characterised by reciprocal functions, but they are otherwise quite different. Extrapolation of long-term accessibility to short intervals suggests recall in the short term could be much better than it is; extrapolation of short-term accessibility to longer intervals poses the contrary problem. Even though the only relevant variable in this comparison appears to be lapse of time, there is a question whether this comparison between short and long term is truly like with like. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00426-020-01408-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.