The Size of The Fan Effect:Process not Representation

The size of fan effects is determined by processes at retrieval, not by whether or not information is represented as situations. Evidence contradicts Radvansky's (in press) claim that time to retrieve information from a situation does not depend on number of elements in a situation. Moreover, Radvansky's principles for ascribing situational models to experiments appear to be post hoc ways of redescribing the data. On the other hand, the evidence does support the ACT-R assumption that participants can adjust their attentional weightings and so produce differential fan effects. Moreover, the ACT-R theory of the fan effect is consistent with many other findings.