Two studies of the effects of partial information (initial‐letter cueing) on amnesic and normal performance are reported. In Experiment I the beneficial effects of partial information on the performance of patients treated with ECT were confirmed. In Experiment II normal subjects were tested after different retention intervals with yes‐no recognition and initial‐letter cueing. With the yes‐no recognition data corrected for guessing, an interaction between method of testing and retention interval was obtained. It is argued that the beneficial effects of partial information are not conclusive evidence of retrieval deficits in