The effect of prior knowledge activation on text recall: an investigation of two conflicting hypotheses

Two hypotheses, the cognitive set‐point and the selective‐attention hypothesis, try to account for the facilitation effects of prior knowledge activation. These hypotheses appear to be mutually exclusive since they predict different recall patterns as a result of prior knowledge activation on text recall. However, in experiments supporting these hypotheses different knowledge structures were activated, resulting in different ways of text processing. In this study the assumption was tested that differences in the nature of the prior knowledge activated can result in these different ways of text processing, which, in turn, can explain the divergent recall patterns; thus, that the cognitive set‐point and the selective‐attention hypothesis could co‐exist. One group activated prior knowledge that was represented in a schema, which would result in processing and recall patterns as predicted by the selective‐attention hypothesis. The second group activated prior knowledge that had not evolved into such a fixed cognitive structure, which would lead to the patterns predicted by the cognitive set‐point hypothesis. The results of these experimental groups, opposed to a control group, largely confirmed the postulation that differences in the nature of the prior knowledge activated can result in different information processes and recall patterns.