Verbal short-term memory as an articulatory system: evidence from an alternative paradigm.

Full Abstract

In a series of experiments, the role of articulatory rehearsal in verbal [corrected] short-term memory was examined via a shadowing-plus-recall paradigm. In this paradigm, subjects shadowed a word target presented closely after an auditory memory list before they recalled the list. The phonological relationship between the shadowing target and the final item on the memory list was manipulated. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that targets sounding similar to the list-final memory item generally took longer to shadow than unrelated targets. This inhibitory effect of phonological relatedness was more pronounced with tense- than lax-vowel pseudoword recall lists. The interaction between vowel tenseness and phonological relatedness was replicated in Experiment 3 using shorter lists of real words. In Experiment 4, concurrent articulation was applied during list learning to block rehearsal; consequently, neither the phonological relatedness effect nor its interaction with vowel tenseness emerged. Experiments 5 and 6 manipulated the occurrence frequencies and lexicality of the recall items, respectively, instead of vowel tenseness. Unlike vowel tenseness, these non-articulatory memory factors failed to interact with the phonological relatedness effect. Experiment 7 orthogonally manipulated the vowel tenseness and frequencies of the recall items; slowing in shadowing times due to phonological relatedness was modulated by vowel tenseness but not frequency. Taken together, these results suggest that under the present paradigm, the modifying effect of vowel tenseness on the magnitude of slowing in shadowing due to phonological relatedness is indicative of a prominent articulatory component in verbal short-term retention. The shadowing-plus-recall approach avoids confounding overt recall into internal memory processing, which is an inherent problem of the traditional immediate serial recall and span tasks.

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Author information

Author/s: Cheung, Him (H); Wooltorton, Lana (L);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. him(-atsign-)psy.otago.ac.nz

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology (Q J Exp Psychol A), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Jan; vol 55 (issue 1) : pp 195-223

Dates: Created 2002/03/04; Completed 2002/05/07; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 11873847, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

ErratumIn: Q J Exp Psychol A 2002 Apr;55(2):704.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adolescent
Adult
Female
Humans
Male

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