In cognitive psychology, what does free recall involve?

Free recall is a memory retrieval method where individuals are asked to remember information without the aid of specific cues or prompts. This approach requires participants to retrieve information purely from memory, emphasizing their ability to access stored knowledge independently.

In free recall tasks, individuals might be presented with a list of items or information and then asked to recall as many items as they can after a delay, relying solely on the strength of their memory. This contrast with other methods, such as cued recall, where participants receive certain cues to trigger memory retrieval. Therefore, the absence of cues is what distinctly characterizes free recall, making it a valuable tool in cognitive psychology for studying memory processes and the organization of information in the mind.