However, the data from Experiments 1 and 2 cannot rule out the explanation that the word ‘‘toy” or
testing prompt may have influenced the way in which adults retrieved knowledge from memory. To
address this alternate explanation for performance on the feature memory task, Experiment 3 examined
whether the linguistic prompt used during the testing trials of the feature memory task affected
performance. If the prompt was influencing how adults retrieved information from memory, it was
expected that there would be differences in performance across the prompt conditions. However, if
participants were retrieving information from memory in a way that was unbiased by the linguistic
testing prompt, there should be no differences in performance across the prompt conditions