Original citation. Nairne, J.S., Pandeirada, J.N.S., & Thompson, S.R. (2008). Adaptive memory: The comparative value of survival processing. Psychological Science, 19(2), 176–180.

Target of replication. We aimed at replicating Study 2. In this within-subjects experiment, survival processing was compared with a different contextually rich encoded scenario. Specifically, control words were rated for their relevance for an extended vacation. Findings demonstrated that words rated for survival relevance were recalled more often.

A priori replication criteria. Nairne, Pandeirada and Thompson report an effect size of ηp2 = .20. Power analysis (G*Power (Version 3.1): ANOVA: Repeated measures, within factors) indicates that a power of 80%, 90%, and 95% is achieved with sample sizes of 10, 13, and 16, respectively (assuming a correlation of r = .5 between repeated measures in all power calculations).

Materials, Data, and Report. Study materials can be found in the full report, which appears in the files section of this node. Raw data can be found in the dataset node.

Conclusions. Our replication of study 2 by Nairne et al. (2008) demonstrated that survival processing produces a clear recall advantage. Words within the survival scenario were remembered more often and rated as more relevant than words within the vacation scenario. We confirmed all previous results.