The effect of articulatory suppression on short-term recognition.

Abstract

Using different formal terminologies, both Grossberg and Stone (1986) and Wickelgren and Norman (1966) have argued that an item in short-term memory has a strength that is determined by the combined influence of" later items entering store and the original encoding strength. It is shown in two experiments that, if d' is used to measure this strength in an immediate recognition task, articulatory suppression of any kind reduces encoding strength as compared with normal voicing; however, the nature of the suppression task determines the reduction in strength attributable to each new later item entering store. In particular, the more the suppression task involves memory extraneous to that for the target material, the greater the reduction in d'. It was also shown that, although the above conclusions are arrived at from analysing recency effects, primacy effects are also influenced by the nature of the suppression task. It must be concluded that articulatory suppression exerts its effects by preoccupying short-term store with extraneous material, one effect being that intralist rehearsal is prevented.RKMJMK Utilisant des terminologies formelles diffcrcntes, Grossbcrg ct Stone et Wickelgren et Norman ont soutcnu qu'un item dans la memoirc a court-termc a unc force determincc par 1'inlluence combince d'items tardifs ctant emmagasines et la force d'encodage originate. Nous avons montre dans deux experiences que si d' cst utilise pour mesurer cette force dans une tache dc reconnaissance immediate, une suppression articulatoire de n'importc quelle sorte rcduit la force d'encodage par comparaison a 1'elocution normalc; cependant la nature de la tachc de suppression determine la reduction dans la force attribuable a chaquc nouvel item tardil etant emmagasinc. En particulier, plus la tache de suppression itnpliquc une memoire etrangere a ccllc du materiel cible, plus grande est la reduction dans d'. Nous avons aussi montre que, bien quc les conclusions citccs plus haut ont etc derivees de 1'analyse des effets issus de choses rcccntes, les effets dc primautc sont aussi influences par la nature de la tache de suppression. II faut conclure que la suppression articulatoire excrcc ses effets en prcoccupant la memoirc a court-termc avee du materiel ctrangcr, un effet etant que la repetition intra-liste esl empechee.

Does length or neighborhood size cause the word length effect?

“…For example, within the context of the feature model, concurrent articulation has always been viewed as adding noise to the memory trace (Nairne, 1990; see also Murray et al, 1988). If this is the case, it is easy to explain the present effects.…”

“…However, another way of thinking about concurrent articulation is as something that adds to the cognitive load by, for example, having to engage in a second activity and by adding noise to the to-be-remembered items (e.g., Murray, Rowan, & Smith 1988;Nairne, 1990;Neath, 2000). In pure lists, a large neighborhood may help recall by assisting with the redintegrative process (e.g., Jalbert et al, 2011;Roodenrys, 2009).…”

A partial matching theory of the mirror effect in immediate probed recognition

“…At least two different groups of authors have argued that the effect of articulatory suppression is not simply to prevent speech encoding of the targets, but to add material to memory-namely, the material enunciated aloud during articulatory suppression. Murray et al (1988) presented an analysis ofserial position curves for d' values obtained in immediate recognition of eight visually presented digit triples using various kinds of suppression tasks. They concluded, on the basis of Experiment 2 (by Andrea Rowan), that any kind of enunciatory activity that itself involved memory retrieval added material to store and that this had the effect of increasing the slope of the curve showing d' as a function ofi.…”

“…In each of the six experiments, we used the immediate probed recognition task involving digit triples that had been used by Murray et al (1988), Murray et al (1991), and Murray et al (in press). The target digit triples were presented visually one at a time (except when target triples were purely heard; see below) in the center ofthe screen of a personal computer, followed by the word WAIT (accompanied by a sound beep) for half a second, followed by the probe digit triple, which stayed on the screen until the subject responded "old" or "new" by pressing a key (the procedure is described in more detail below).…”

“…Here the variable that seems to be determining the mirror effect is the presence or absence of auditory information heard directly by the subject. Other studies that have investigated immediate probed recognition for digit triples include those by Murray, Rowan, and Smith (1988), who explored the effects of articulatory suppression on performance, and Murray, Birch, Chase, Eyolfson, and Simms (1991), who explored the effects of varying the intensity level of the auditory components of the target presentation; these investigations will be discussed later.…”