The varying nature of semantic effects in working memory

Kowialiewski, Benjamin; Majerus, Steve

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104278

Cited by 24 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…This dataset was used to assess the model's ability to reproduce the overall impact of semantic relatedness on serial recall performance and order recall performance. It is wellestablished that semantic relatedness strongly enhances recall performance at the item level (see Kowialiewski and Majerus, 2020 for a meta-analysis). Semantic relatedness has also a small deleterious impact on the ability to recall serial order information, even though the effect is subtle (see also Ishiguro and Saito, 2020).…”

Section: Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Accordingly, we expect the architecture to have little or no impact on order recall performance. We used the data reported in Kowialiewski and Majerus (2020), where they manipulated the semantic relatedness on six-item lists under interfering conditions or under immediate serial recall tasks. Only the results from the latter condition were reported.…”

Section: Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…"nature" instead of "leaf-tree-branch"). At recall, due to the decompression of the semantic chunk, the arbitrary order of the items themselves may be lost (Kowialiewski & Majerus, 2020), leading to the erroneous recall of a related word 3 .…”

Section: How Is Serial Order Represented?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Kowialiewski & Majerus, 2020). The items are successively activated with decreasing strength using an activation gradient.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Can activated long-term memory maintain serial order information?

Kowialiewski¹,

Lemaire²,

Majerus³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The maintenance of serial order information is a core component of Working Memory (WM). Many theoretical models assume the existence of specific serial order mechanisms. Those are considered to be independent from the linguistic system supporting maintenance of item information. This is based on studies showing that psycholinguistic factors strongly affect the ability to maintain item information, while leaving order recall relatively unaffected. Recent language-based accounts suggest however that the linguistic system could provide mechanisms that are sufficient for serial order maintenance. A strong version of these accounts postulates serial order maintenance as emerging from the pattern of activation occurring in the linguistic system. In the present study, we tested this assumption via a computational modeling approach, by implementing a purely activation-based architecture. We tested this architecture against several experiments involving the manipulation of semantic relatedness, a psycholinguistic variable that has been shown to interact with serial order processing in a complex manner. We show that this activation-based architecture struggles to account for interactions between semantic knowledge and serial order processing. This study fails to support activated long-term memory as an exclusive mechanism supporting serial order maintenance.

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Section: Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: How Is Serial Order Represented?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Kowialiewski & Majerus, 2020). The items are successively activated with decreasing strength using an activation gradient.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Can activated long-term memory maintain serial order information?

Kowialiewski¹,

Lemaire²,

Majerus³

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…The extended redintegration theory adopted the redintegration process from the original redintegration theory and further broadened the original theory to include semantic similarity effects in its theoretical scope by assuming two additional mechanisms: spreading activation in associative networks and cuing by additional retrieval cues. Positing pre-experimental associations between words in similar word lists (e.g., the association between "cat" and "dog" or that between "climb" and "peak"), Tse (2009) suggested that encoding/retrieval of a word activates representations of other words associated with that word (for a similar idea, see Kowialiewski & Majerus, 2020). Such spreading activation in associative networks is thought to facilitate the redintegration process.…”

Section: Observations and Explanations Of Semantic Similaritymentioning

confidence: 99%

Whether and how semantic similarity impairs short-term memory: A test with a new index of semantic similarity

Ishiguro¹,

Saito²

2020

Preprint

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Semantic similarity appears to have a facilitative effect on short-term memory (STM), which contrasts with the detrimental effects of phonological and visual similarity on STM. Given that STM theories generally posit detrimental effects of similarity, it is theoretically and empirically important to test the semantic similarity effect. Recently, a review study proposed that semantic similarity per se would have a detrimental effect while semantic association and additional retrieval cues, which are facilitative of STM, would work as confounding factors for the semantic similarity effect. The present study tested this view by minimizing the influence of these possible confounding factors in the experiment and by utilizing a new index of semantic similarity in the analysis. The results of the present study indicated that the semantic similarity indeed had a detrimental effect on immediate serial recall correct-in-position scores. An examination based on two other scoring methods (i.e., item correct and absolute order errors) further suggested that the locus of the detrimental effect of semantic similarity is in order memory. In addition, other semantico-lexical variables (e.g., word length, frequency, and imageability) were also analyzed. Patterns of these variables’ effects on item memory were complementary to the effect of semantic similarity on order memory. From a theoretical point of view, as the detrimental effect of semantic similarity demonstrated by the present study is comparable to phonological and visual similarity effects, this finding implies a store based on semantic information or a general process for various types of information.

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