Serial reconstruction of order and serial recall in verbal short-term memory

Abstract

We carried out a series of experiments on verbal short-term memory for lists of words. In the first experiment, participants were tested via immediate serial recall, and word frequency and list set size were manipulated. With closed lists, the same set of items was repeatedly sampled, and with open lists, no item was presented more than once. In serial recall, effects of word frequency and set size were found. When a serial reconstruction-of-order task was used, in a second experiment, robust effects of word frequency emerged, but set size failed to show an effect. The effects of word frequency in order reconstruction were further examined in two final experiments. The data from these experiments revealed that the effects of word frequency are robust and apparently are not exclusively indicative of output processes. In light of these findings, we propose a multiple-mechanisms account in which word frequency can influence both retrieval and preretrieval processes.Keywords Serial recall . Reconstruction of order . Verbal short-term memory . RedintegrationOne of the most well-known techniques for studying verbal short-term memory is to present a short list of words to a person and then get the person to report back the words in the order in which they were presented. This is known as the immediate serial-recall task. To perform well in the task, participants must remember both the actual words (i.e., the items) and the order in which the words occurred. Many models of short-term memory, as defined relative to immediate serial recall, incorporate distinct mechanisms for maintaining the two types of information (e.g., Brown, Neath, & Chater, 2007;Brown, Preece, & Hulme, 2000;Burgess & Hitch, 1992;Farrell & Lewandowsky, 2002;Henson, 1998;Page & Norris, 1998), and it has been suggested that different brain regions are involved in dealing with these two forms of memory (Majerus, 2009). In this vein, attempts have been made to establish whether different factors differentially influence memory for item versus order information. For example, it has often been suggested that the deleterious effect of having similar-sounding words within a list selectively disrupts memory for the order of the items (e.g., Baddeley, 1986).In order to align the effects of other variables with the operations of specific mechanisms in models of memory, other tasks have also been used, and the present concerns are with something known as the order reconstruction task. In this task, the to-be-remembered (TBR) words that have just been presented are re-presented at test in a new random order, and the participant attempts to reconstruct the order of the words' presentation. A simple assumption is that the order reconstruction task is nothing other than a test of item order information, or, as Whiteman, Nairne, and Serra (1994) stated, the reconstruction task Bprovides a relatively pure index of position memory^ (pp. 276-277).To investigate such a possibility, Whiteman et al. (1994) manipulated word frequency-a variable that reflects item k...

Set size and long-term memory/lexical effects in immediate serial recall: Testing the impurity principle

“…The important results from the analysis of the accuracy data are that a word frequency effect was observed and that it did not interact with either set size or experiment half. The lack of a set size effect replicated Experiment 1 of Quinlan et al (2017) but differed from the significant set size effect reported by Roodenrys and Quinlan (2000). It is not clear what the key difference is between the studies.…”

“…Experiment 3 was designed to see whether the frequency effect that is observed when a large open set is used would also be observed when a small closed set was used, as had previously been reported by both Roodenrys and Quinlan (2000) and Quinlan et al (2017). Experiment 3, then, was identical to Experiment 1, except that word frequency was manipulated instead of concreteness.…”

rTMS evidence for a dissociation in short-term memory for spoken words and nonwords

“…On this basis they proposed that SMG plays a crucial role in memory for serial order. We did not find an increase in item order errors with SMG stimulation but when the phonological form of items are well-learned or a task uses a restricted set of items (like the number words 1-9), the task demands focus on the retention of whole items in order (Quinlan, Roodenrys, & Miller, 2017; Roodenrys & Quinlan, 2000;Saint-Aubin & Poirier, 2000). In contrast, for unfamiliar items (like nonwords), ordering mechanisms are necessary to maintain constituent phonemes in sequence, and consequently, disruption of ordering mechanisms gives rise to item errors of the form we observed (Jefferies, Frankish, et al, 2006a, 2006bJefferies, Lambon Ralph, & Baddeley, 2004;Page, Madge, Cumming, & Norris, 2007;Savill, Ashton, et al, 2015).…”

Simple measurement models for complex working-memory tasks.

“…Redintegration is effectively selection of a recall option from a set of candidates according to the relative strength of evidence from memory that each of them receives. In support, a direct comparison of both methods also shows that two experimental variablesserial position and word frequency -affect serial-order reconstruction and serial recall of words in the same way (Quinlan, Roodenrys, & Miller, 2017) Taking a broader perspective, the different labels we use to describe the multitude of procedures for testing (working) memory -such as "recall", "recognition", or "reconstruction" -do not map well onto the different decision processes we demand through these procedures. Many methods described by these labels share the requirement to select one element from a set of candidates.…”

“…The normal distribution is not meant to describe the true distribution of parameters but to function as a convenient approximation of the true distribution. We applied the 64 model versions to the data from each experiment using JAGS 4.2 (Plummer, 2016) for running the MCMC samples, together with the R2jags package (Su, 2015) in R (R_Core_Team, 2017). Model comparison was based on the WAIC information criterion (Watanabe, 2010), which is suited for hierarchical models and has better statistical properties than the more often used DIC (Gelman, Hwang, & Vehtari, 2014).…”