Encoding Organizational Source and Associative Source under Incidental and Intentional Learning Conditions

The present study aimed at providing a plausible answer for the controversy whether organizational source or associative source could be encoded in a more automatic manner through incidental learning. In the experiment, subjects were asked to learn organizational and associative sources under incidental or intentional learning conditions. It turned out that only associative source accuracy increased when subjects were instructed to intentionally learn that source, which implied that associative source might be encoded in a more effortful way, whereas processing of organizational source might be performed incidentally.