Automatic semantic encoding in verbal short-term memory: Evidence from the concreteness effect (original) (raw)
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The interaction of word frequency and concreteness in immediate serial recall
Memory & Cognition, 2009
Word frequency and word concreteness are language attributes that have been shown to independently influence the recall of items in verbal short-term memory (STM). It has been argued that such effects are evidence for the action of long-term memory knowledge on STM traces. However, research to date has not investigated whether these variables interact in serial recall. In two experiments, we examined the behavior of these variables under factorial manipulation and demonstrated that the effect of word frequency is dependent on the level of concreteness of items. Serial recall performance is examined with reference to two explanatory approaches: Walker and Hulme's (1999) dual-redintegration account and language-based models of STM. The data indicate that language-based models are more compatible with the observed effects and challenge the view that frequency and concreteness effects in STM are the products of distinct mechanisms.
The Relationship Between Verbal Short-term Memory and Language Processing Mechanisms
2002
The central issue addressed in this thesis was how mechanisms and representational capacities existing for the processing of speech are involved in verbal short-term memory functioning. To this end, six experiments were conducted in which various language variables were manipulated, and the consequent effects on immediate verbal memory and speech input and output processing examined. In addition, direct links between performance on each word in the memory and language tasks were analysed. Word concreteness had significant effects on Immediate Serial Recall performance in four experiments, indicating an important role for semantic information in verbal memory. This variable also influenced performance in various speech processing tasks, with particularly consistent effects emerging in certain measures of speech production. In a further experiment, semantic ambiguity effects were observed in two measures of input processing, but not in immediate verbal memory. Finally, facilitatory word frequency and neighbourhood size effects were found in Immediate Serial Recall and in various measures of speech production. However, while frequency also benefited performance in two speech perception tasks, inhibitory effects of neighbourhood size were observed in these measures. These findings would suggest variable effects to emerge in verbal short-term memory primarily through the operation of mechanisms serving speech production. In line with this, regression analyses in each experiment revealed that the only measures to significantly predict each participant's recall of each item were Definition Nan-dng and Speech Rate. Memory performance was not related to word recognition. These experiments support a model in which phonological and semantic short-term retention is dependent upon persisting activation within the speech processing system, with a particular reliance on mechanisms within the output pathway.
The Influence of Semantic Memory on Verbal Short-term Memory
2011
Abstract Findings from immediate memory research have shown that items belonging to the same semantic category are recalled more accurately than items belonging to different categories (Poirier & Saint-Aubin, 1995; Tse, 2009). One explanation of this effect is that the category label serves as an extra retrieval cue which supports recall. An alternative view suggests performance is supported by the strong associative links between the items belonging to the same category.
Linguistic encoding in short-term memory as a function of stimulus type
Memory & Cognition, 1989
In this study, we investigated bases for encoding linguistic stimuli in short-term memory. Past research has provided evidence for both phonological (sound-based) and cherological (sign-based) encoding, the former typically found with hearing subjects and the latter with deaf users of sign language. In the present experiment, encoding capabilities were delineated from encoding preferences, using 58 subjects comprising six groups differing in hearing ability and linguistic experience. Phonologically related, cherologically related, and control lists were presented orally, manually, or through both modalities simultaneously. Recall performance indicated that individuals encode flexibly, the code actually used being biased by incoming stimulus characteristics. Subjects with both sign and speech experience recalled simultaneous presentations better than ones presented orally or manually alone, which reveals the occurrence of enhanced encoding as a function of linguistic experience. Total linguistic experience appeared to determine recall accuracy following different types of encoding, rather than determining the encoding basis used.
Journal of Experimental Psychology-learning Memory and Cognition, 1997
Four experiments investigated the mechanisms responsible for the advantage enjoyed by high-frequency words in short-term memory tasks. Experiment 1 demonstrated effects of word frequency on memory span that were independent of differences in speech rate. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that word frequency has an increasing effect on serial recall across serial positions, but Experiment 4 showed that this effect was abolished for backward recall. A model that includes a redintegration process that operates to "clean up" decayed short-term memory traces is proposed, and the multinomial processing tree model described by is used to provide a quantitative fit to data from Experiments 2, 3, and 4.