Exploring the relationship between new word learning and short-term memory for serial order recall,item recall,and item recognition

We reexplored the relationship between new word learning and verbal short-term memory (STM) capacities, by distinguishing STM for serial order information, item recall, and item recognition. STM capacities for order information were estimated via a serial order reconstruction task. A rhyme probe recognition task assessed STM for item recognition. Item recall capacities were derived from the proportion of item errors in an immediate serial recall task. In Experiment 1, strong correlations were observed between item recall and item recognition, but not between the item STM tasks and the serial order task, supporting recent theoretical positions that consider that STM for item and serial order rely on distinct capacities. Experiment 2 showed that only the serial order reconstruction task predicted independent variance in a paired associate word–nonword learning task. Our results suggest that STM capacities for serial order play a specific and causal role in learning new phonological information.     

Perception and memory loss of item and order information in short-term memory

Recognition probes given before or after a series of letters presented at varying rates were used to evaluate perception and memory loss of order and item information. For both order and item information pre- and postprobe functions converged at fast rates of presentation. Performance decrement at fast rates is attributable to perceptual factors and is greater for order than for item information.     

The item-order hypothesis reconsidered: The role of order information in free recall

According to the item-order approach of free recall, in pure short lists the free recall of unrelated items is organized according to their order of presentation in the study list. The approach was applied in the present study to experimenter-performed tasks (EPTs) and subject-performed tasks (SPTs). It claims that EPTs provide better serial order information than SPTs. Consequently, free recall of EPTs should be more organized along the presentation order of the items than the free recall of SPTs. In three experiments, some specific aspects of this approach were studied. Firstly, it was demonstrated that serial retrieval is not strongly used spontaneously and that its use is overestimated in the literature because it is usually evoked by an order reconstruction test which follows free recall testing. Secondly, a serial retrieval strategy in free recall can be encouraged by explicit instructions. Finally, the present experiments showed that a serial output strategy alone does not allow one to predict performance in free recall. The implications of these findings for the item-order approach will be discussed.     

Estimating item and order information

In a common psychological procedure, the subject is presented a sequence of items and is asked to recall them in order. His response is scored for items reported correctly in their correct position (position score) and for items reported correctly independently of position (item score). Such data are analyzed in terms of a model which assumes that a particular stimulus item may be forgotten entirely (State 0), may be remembered but without any knowledge of its position in the sequence, or may be remembered together with knowledge of its position (State 2). State 2 is related to the position score, and we define a nonexclusive State 1 (which contains all items not in State 0) that is related to the item score. In Part 1, we use the observed item and position scores to derive estimates of the trial-to-trial distribution of the number of items in States 1 and 2. In Part 2 we consider separately each serial position of the stimulus, and derive estimates of the probability that each individual item is in State 1 and State 2. The model handles omissions, second guesses, and gives sensitive estimates of partial information. Fast Fortran computer programs are available for all computations. In general, whenever responses are scored for items and/or for position, and when no alternative model is being tested, it is recommended that the above model be used to correct for the effects of guessing.     

Effects of language dominance on item and order memory in free recall,serial recall and order reconstruction

Spanish–English bilinguals (N = 144) performed free recall, serial recall and order reconstruction tasks in both English and Spanish. Long-term memory for both item and order information was worse in the less fluent language (L2) than in the more fluent language (L1). Item scores exhibited a stronger disadvantage for the L2 in serial recall than in free recall. Relative order scores were lower in the L2 for all three tasks, but adjusted scores for free and serial recall were equivalent across languages. Performance of English-speaking monolinguals (N = 72) was comparable to bilingual performance in the L1, except that monolinguals had higher adjusted order scores in free recall. Bilingual performance patterns in the L2 were consistent with the established effects of concurrent task performance on these memory tests, suggesting that the cognitive resources required for processing words in the L2 encroach on resources needed to commit item and order information to memory. These findings are also consistent with a model in which item memory is connected to the language system, order information is processed by separate mechanisms and attention can be allocated differentially to these two systems.     

Relations between vocabulary development and verbal short-term memory: The relative importance of short-term memory for serial order and item information

Although many studies have shown an association between verbal short-term memory (STM) and vocabulary development, the precise nature of this association is not yet clear. The current study reexamined this relation in 4- to 6-year-olds by designing verbal STM tasks that maximized memory for either item or serial order information. Although empirical data suggest that distinct STM processes determine item and serial order recall, these were generally confounded in previous developmental studies. We observed that item and order memory tasks were independently related to vocabulary development. Furthermore, vocabulary development was more strongly associated with STM for order information in 4- and 6-year-olds and with STM for item information in 5-year-olds. These data highlight the specificity of verbal STM for serial order and item information and suggest a causal association between order STM processes and vocabulary development, at least in 4- and 6-year-olds.     

The effects of generation on item and order retention in immediate and delayed recall

Recent research has shown that generating words from fragments, relative to simply reading them, inhibits processing of order information. Nairne, Riegler, and Serra (1991) showed that this reduction in processing of order information leads to deficits in recall performance. In three experiments, we generally replicate Nairne et al.'s results and demonstrate that the deficit in recall for the generated items is dependent on the easy distractor task and the relatively short (30-sec) retention interval they used. When a difficult distractor task was used, generating produced a deficit in amount of order information processed, but actually facilitated recall when recall was delayed 80 sec. The results are consistent with the hypothesisthat generating words inhibits order processing, but they do not support the contention that the reduction in order pro~ cessing isresponsible for the deficit in recall that is sometimes observed for the generated items.     

Maintenance of semantic information in capacity-limited item short-term memory

We report a semantic effect in immediate free recall, which is localized at recency and is preserved under articulatory suppression but is highly reduced when recall is delayed after an intervening distractor task. These results are explained by a neurocomputational model based on a limited-capacity short-term memory (STM) store, consisting ofactivated long-term memory representations. The model makes additional predictions about serial position functions in semantically cued recall, indicating capacity limitations caused by a displacement type mechanism, which are confirmed in a second experiment. This suggests that in addition to the phonological component in verbal STM, there is an activation/ item-limited component with semantically sensitive representations.     

The order of recall and the recall of order

Adelphi University, Garden City, Long Island, New York 11530 Four experiments are described. The first three lend support to the assertion that retrieval from short-term storage (STS) is improved, possibly to a maximum, if items are recalled in their originally presented order. In the fourth experiment a modified recall condition was introduced in which written position of recall reflected order information. Although the subject was not constrained to recall the items in order under this modified recall condition, both item and order retention increased in comparison to both free and serial recall conditions. Within the theoretical framework adopted, the results indicate that retrieval from STS is improved by recalling in order; while long-term storage (LTS) is reduced by the constraint to recall in order. However, LTS is increased by the retention of order information when recalling in order is not required.     

Encoding and output order processes in short-term order recall of distinctive items.

Adults recalled the order of the letters in one of two four-letter segments following a distractor task. They knew in advance the identity of the letters in each segment. A letter was made distinctive by replacing it with a red dash. This unusual form of distinctiveness generally had negative effects on recall of both the segment containing the missing letter and the absent letter within the segment. Encoding and output processes were manipulated by varying precue information and recall order instructions, respectively. Informing participants in advance whether or not a trial would contain a distinctive (i.e., missing) letter depressed recall. Constraining output order eliminated the disadvantage for the absent letter. The results are discussed in terms of encoding and output order processes in short-term recall of order information.     

Short-term recall of order information: Influence of encoding and generation processes on distinctiveness,isolation, and background effects

We examined the influence of encoding and generation processes on distinctiveness, isolation, and background effects in short-term recall of order information. Adults recalled the order of letters in one of two segments following a distractor task, knowing in advance the identity of the letters. A distinctive letter was one that was either in red or absent and replaced with a red dash, thereby requiring generation. On trials with a distinctive letter, the letter was primed in advance. A negative generation effect was found; in addition, there was a positive distinctiveness effect but a negative background effect on trials in which generation was required. These effects can be explained in terms of the extra processing given to distinctive items when they need to be generated.     

Order information and retrieval distinctiveness: recall of common versus bizarre material

The order-encoding hypothesis (E. L. DeLosh & M. A. McDaniel, 1996) assumes that serial-order information contributes to the retrieval of list items and that serial-order encoding is better for common items than bizarre items. In line with this account, Experiment 1 revealed better free recall and serial-order memory for common than for bizarre items in pure lists, and Experiment 2 showed that recall for bizarre items increased and the recall advantage of common items was eliminated when serial-order encoding for bizarre items was increased to the level of common items. However, inconsistent with a second assumption that bizarre-item advantages in mixed lists reflect better individual-item encoding for bizarre items, Experiments 3 and 4 showed that the bizarreness effect in mixed lists is eliminated when alternative retrieval strategies are encouraged. This set of findings is better explained by the differential-retrieval-process framework, which proposes that contextual factors (e.g., list composition) influence the extent to which various types of information are used at retrieval, with the bizarreness advantage in mixed lists dependent on a distinctiveness-based retrieval process.     

The distinctiveness heuristic in false recognition and false recall

The effects of generative processing on false recognition and recall were examined in four experiments using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott false memory paradigm (Deese, 1959 Deese, J. 1959. On the prediction of occurrence of particular verbal intrusions in immediate recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58: 17–22. [Crossref], [PubMed] , [Google Scholar]; Roediger & McDermott, 1995 Roediger, H. L. and McDermott, K. B. 1995. Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21: 803–814. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). In each experiment, a Generate condition in which subjects generated studied words from audio anagrams was compared to a Control condition in which subjects simply listened to studied words presented normally. Rates of false recognition and false recall were lower for critical lures associated with generated lists, than for critical lures associated with control lists, but only in between-subjects designs. False recall and recognition did not differ when generate and control conditions were manipulated within-subjects. This pattern of results is consistent with the distinctiveness heuristic (Schacter, Israel, & Racine, 1999 Schacter, D. L., Israel, L. and Racine, C. 1999. Suppressing false recognition in younger and older adults: The distinctiveness heuristic. Journal of Memory and Language, 40: 1–24. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), a metamemorial decision-based strategy whereby global changes in decision criteria lead to reductions of false memories. This retrieval-based monitoring mechanism appears to operate in a similar fashion in reducing false recognition and false recall.     

The distinctiveness heuristic in false recognition and false recall

The effects of generative processing on false recognition and recall were examined in four experiments using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott false memory paradigm (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). In each experiment, a Generate condition in which subjects generated studied words from audio anagrams was compared to a Control condition in which subjects simply listened to studied words presented normally. Rates of false recognition and false recall were lower for critical lures associated with generated lists, than for critical lures associated with control lists, but only in between-subjects designs. False recall and recognition did not differ when generate and control conditions were manipulated within-subjects. This pattern of results is consistent with the distinctiveness heuristic (Schacter, Israel, & Racine, 1999), a metamemorial decision-based strategy whereby global changes in decision criteria lead to reductions of false memories. This retrieval-based monitoring mechanism appears to operate in a similar fashion in reducing false recognition and false recall.     

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

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.     

Maintenance of item and order information in verbal working memory

Although verbal recall of item and order information is well-researched in short-term memory paradigms, there is relatively little research concerning item and order recall from working memory. The following study examined whether manipulating the opportunity for attentional refreshing and articulatory rehearsal in a complex span task differently affected the recall of item- and order-specific information of the memoranda. Five experiments varied the opportunity for articulatory rehearsal and attentional refreshing in a complex span task, but the type of recall was manipulated between experiments (item and order, order only, and item only recall). The results showed that impairing attentional refreshing and articulatory rehearsal similarly affected recall regardless of whether the scoring procedure (Experiments 1 and 4) or recall requirements (Experiments 2, 3, and 5) reflected item- or order-specific recall. This implies that both mechanisms sustain the maintenance of item and order information, and suggests that the common cumulative functioning of these two mechanisms to maintain items could be at the root of order maintenance.     

The role of collateral information about examinees in item parameter estimation

Standard procedures for estimating item parameters in item response theory (IRT) ignore collateral information that may be available about examinees, such as their standing on demographic and educational variables. This paper describes circumstances under which collateral information about examineesmay be used to make inferences about item parameters more precise, and circumstances under which itmust be used to obtain correct inferences.This work was supported by Contract No. N00014-85-K-0683, project designation NR 150-539, from the Cognitive Science Program, Cognitive and Neural Sciences Division, Office of Naval Research. Reproduction in whole or in part is permitted for any purpose of the United States Government. We are indebted to Tim Davey, Eugene Johnson, and three anonymous referees for their comments on earlier versions of the paper.     

Ineffectiveness of visual distinctiveness in enhancing immediate recall

Glenberg (1984) and others have theorized that greater recency effects are obtained with auditory as opposed to visual presentation because of greater temporal distinctiveness of items in auditory sequences. We tested a number of ways of enhancing visual distinctiveness, including the use of color, spatial location, and minimized visual interference. None of the seven experiments provided any evidence of improved recall from enhanced visual distinctiveness. In particular, no increase in recency effects was obtained with increased distinctiveness. Additional analyses of pairwise dependency in recall across serial positions also failed to show any evidence of the near-independence of recall of the terminal item that characterizes recall of auditory sequences. Visual-perceptual distinctiveness does not get mapped in any simple way onto memorial distinctiveness in an immediate-serial-recall task.     

Recall of order information by deaf signers: Phonetic coding in temporal order recall

To examine the claim that phonetic coding plays a special role in temporal order recall, deaf and hearing college students were tested on their recall of temporal and spatial order information at two delay intervals. The deaf subjects were all native signers of American Sign Language. The results indicated that both the deaf and hearing subjects used phonetic coding in short-term temporal recall, and visual coding in spatial recall. There was no evidence of manual or visual coding among either the hearing or the deaf subjects in the temporal order recall task. The use of phonetic coding for temporal recall is consistent with the hypothesis that recall of temporal order information is facilitated by a phonetic code.