Retrieval Time in Short‐term Memory

Abstract

Two experiments were performed in order to test the hypothesis that the time taken to remember a recently presented verbal item depends on whether the item is retrieved from primary (immediate post‐perceptual) or from secondary (relatively long‐term) memory. The results indicate that retrieval from primary memory takes significantly less time than retrieval from secondary, and that an item available in both stores is retrieved from the former (after a relatively short delay).

The Demise of Short-Term Memory Revisited: Empirical and Computational Investigations of Recency Effects.

“…Because recency items reside most often in the buffer when the retrieval cue is presented, they are predicted to have shorter latencies. This was precisely the result found by Waugh (1970), who examined the distribution of recall latencies in probed recall as function of serial position.…”

“…In most of the experiments conducted in this field, the data involve accuracy as a function of serial position in the list. There are a few studies, however, that have also examined recall latencies and interresponse times (Murdock, 1972; Murdock & Okada, 1970; Waugh, 1970; for review, see Wixted & Rohrer, 1993). Although, in its present form, our model does not predict response latencies and interretrieval times, we believe that it provides a natural framework for doing so.…”

“…Among them are primarily the free-recall task and its related versions (immediate, delayed, and continuous-distractor recall), all of which have played a central role in earlier investigations. In addition, as we show, the model applies to the cued-recall paradigm (Waugh, 1970;Waugh & Norman, 1965). Although we did not attempt here to model in detail control processes and semantic effects, we indicate how the model can address such processes (see the Utility of the Dynamic Buffer section).…”

“…To this end, and following the results of Experiment 1, we set the proactive interference to a relative high level by using a small word pool with replacement. Furthermore, we also imposed a deadline for recall that penalized slow episodic retrieval processes (Waugh, 1970).…”

The sandwich effect: The role of attentional factors in serial recall.

“…The fact that the concurrent tasks do not interact with the sandwich condition suggests that the process of retrieval is itself not particularly attentionally limited. There is evidence to suggest that retrieval from phonological short-term memory may not be particularly attentionally demanding (Waugh, 1970) and that under certain conditions retrieval from long-term memory might itself not be particularly sensitive to the effects of concurrent load (Baddeley, Lewis, Eldridge, & Thomson, 1984). Indeed, one way of viewing the sandwich effect is as a version of the irrelevant speech phenomenon.…”