Visual similarity in short-term recall for where and when

Two experiments examined the effects of visual similarity on short-term recall for where and when in the visual spatial domain. A series of squares of similar or dissimilar colours were serially presented at various locations on the screen. At recall, all coloured squares were simultaneously presented in a random order at the bottom of the screen, and the locations used for presentation were indicated by white squares. Participants were asked to place the colours at their appropriate location in their presentation order. Performance for location (where) and order (when) was assessed separately. Results revealed that similarity severely hinders both memory for what was where and memory for what was when, under quiet and articulatory suppression conditions. These results provide further evidence that similarity has a major impact on processing relational information in memory.     

Visual similarity effects in immediate verbal serial recall

The role of visual working memory in temporary serial retention of verbal information was examined in four experiments on immediate serial recall of words that varied in visual similarity and letters that varied in the visual consistency between upper and lower case. Experiments 1 and 2 involved words that were either visually similar (e.g. fly, cry, dry; hew, new, few ) or were visually distinct (e.g. guy, sigh, lie; who, blue, ewe ). Experiments 3 and 4 involved serial recall of both letter and case from sequences of letters chosen such that the upper- and lower-case versions were visually similar, for example Kk, Cc, Zz, Ww , or were visually dissimilar, for example Dd, Hh, Rr, Qq . Hence in the latter set, case informationwas encoded interms of both the shape and the size of the letters. With both words and letters, the visually similar items resulted in poorer recall both with and without concurrent articulatory suppression. This visual similarity effect was robust and was replicated across the four experiments. The effect was not restricted to any particular serial position and was particularly salient in the recall of letter case. These data suggest the presence of a visual code for retention of visually presented verbal sequences in addition to a phonological code, and they are consistent with the use of a visual temporary memory, or visual "cache", in verbal serial recall tasks.     

Effect of similarity of interpolated materials on short-term recall

Two experimental studies bear out the assertion that the probability of short-term recall of verbal units is adversely affected by the similarity of interpolated items. The possibility is conceded that some confounding of trace decay and interference factors may occur whenever an interval between an original presentation and its subsequent recall is filled with some intervening activity; yet it may be concluded that the results broadly corroborate and support the interference hypothesis as the major explanation of short-term forgetting, and of the decisive role of similarity.     

Recognition and recall in short-term memory

A signal detection analysis of confidence judgments in short-term memory was used to investigate the difference in the amount of information required in memory for recognition and recall. In yoked recognition and recall experiments, subjects learned lists of five paired-associates and were probe-tested for one of them either by a recall or yes-no recognition procedure. This method permitted examination of the effect of serial position on the obtained differences in information in memory.     

Cuing effects in short-term recall

Past research indicates that short-term memory can be immune to the effects of proactive interference (PI). Past research also indicates that immunity to PI is found only in those circumstances where phonemic representations of to-be-remembered items are present and provide discriminative information. The first three experiments demonstrate the existence of a further boundary condition. PI is observed only if interfering and target items are subsumed by the same cue. This finding suggests that short-term recall, like long-term recall, is cue dependent. Cuing effects are further explored in two experiments that manipulate category dominance. The finding that category dominance effects parallel PI effects strongly suggests that retrieval cues play a critical role in short-term recall.     

Visual imagery and dream recall

Research in dream recall frequency has failed to isolate psychological variables which clearly and reliably differentiate frequent dream recallers from infrequent recallers. The present study tested the hypothesis that frequent recallers have a greater capacity for visual imagery than infrequent recallers. Subjects selected on the basis of reported dream recall frequency were administered a Paired-Associate Learning task designed to measure visual imagery, a rating scale of imagery clarity and vividness, and a subjective measure of imagery controllability. The results provide support for the hypothesis and, together with other evidence, suggest that a generalized capacity for visualization may contribute to the quality of the dreaming experience and, consequently, to its recallability.     

Visual similarity effects on short-term memory for order: The case of verbally labeled pictorial stimuli

Four experiments examined the effect of visual similarity on immediate memory for order. Experiments 1 and 2 used easily nameable line drawings. Following a sequential presentation in either silent or suppression conditions, participants were presented with the drawings in a new, random order and were required to remember their original serial position. In Experiment 3, participants first learned to associate a verbal label with an abstract matrix pattern. Then they completed an immediate memory task in which they had to name the matrices aloud during presentation. At recall, the task required remembering either the order of the matrices or the order of their names. In Experiment 4, participants learned to associate nonword labels with schematic line drawings of faces; the phonemic similarity of the verbal labels was also manipulated. All four experiments indicate that the representations supporting performance comprise both verbal and visual features. The results are consistent with a multiattribute encoding view.     

Phonological similarity and lexicality effects in children's verbal short-term memory: concerns about the interpretation of probed recall data

Probed recall tasks are often used to assess aspects of children's verbal short-term memory development because they are not subject to potentially confounding output effects. However, the marked recency effects that are observed in probed recall means that these tasks are potentially insensitive to experimental manipulations when later serial positions are probed. This clouds the interpretation of data from probed recall studies in which children of different ages are presented with to-be-remembered lists of different lengths. In two experiments we examined the magnitude of phonological similarity and lexicality effects in both 5- to 6- and 8- to 9-year-old children. In each case performance on probed recall tasks was contrasted with that seen on tests of serial recognition. The results indicated that probed recall tasks are potentially less sensitive to experimental manipulations in younger than older children. However, comparable effects of both phonological similarity and lexicality were seen in both age groups using serial recognition procedures. These findings have implications for the interpretation of other studies that have examined the development of verbal short-term memory using probed recall and for theoretical accounts of the development of phonological similarity and lexicality effects in children.     

Phonological similarity and lexicality effects in children's verbal short-term memory: Concerns about the interpretation of probed recall data

Probed recall tasks are often used to assess aspects of children's verbal short-term memory development because they are not subject to potentially confounding output effects. However, the marked recency effects that are observed in probed recall means that these tasks are potentially insensitive to experimental manipulations when later serial positions are probed. This clouds the interpretation of data from probed recall studies in which children of different ages are presented with to-be-remembered lists of different lengths. In two experiments we examined the magnitude of phonological similarity and lexicality effects in both 5- to 6- and 8- to 9-year-old children. In each case performance on probed recall tasks was contrasted with that seen on tests of serial recognition. The results indicated that probed recall tasks are potentially less sensitive to experimental manipulations in younger than older children. However, comparable effects of both phonological similarity and lexicality were seen in both age groups using serial recognition procedures. These findings have implications for the interpretation of other studies that have examined the development of verbal short-term memory using probed recall and for theoretical accounts of the development of phonological similarity and lexicality effects in children.     

Auditory and visual similarity effects in recognition and recall

The role of auditory and visual factors in short-term recall and recognition performance was evaluated. Auditory similarity, but not visual similarity, was found to be predictive of the probability of a correct response and response confidence for both types of tests. The results were interpreted as support for a single-trace model of recall and recognition performance.     

Selective phonemic and semantic coding in short-term recall

Probed recall of targets from six-word sequences containing either phonemically similar, semantically similar, or control (i.e., unrelated phonemically and semantically) stimuli was compared under two conditions of encoding. For the semantic encoding condition, in which all cues provided category information about targets to be recalled, semantic similarity interference effects and phonemic similarity facilitation effects were demonstrated. In the phonemic encoding condition, in which all targets were cued by words which rhymed with them, only phonemic similarity interference effects were found. These results were taken to provide further evidence contradictory to the coding-based dichotomization of primary and secondary memory, and to reflect the importance of selective coding strategies induced by task requirements as determinants of interference effects in short-term recall.     

Visual similarity is stronger than semantic similarity in guiding visual search for numbers

Using a visual search task, we explored how behavior is influenced by both visual and semantic information. We recorded participants’ eye movements as they searched for a single target number in a search array of single-digit numbers (0–9). We examined the probability of fixating the various distractors as a function of two key dimensions: the visual similarity between the target and each distractor, and the semantic similarity (i.e., the numerical distance) between the target and each distractor. Visual similarity estimates were obtained using multidimensional scaling based on the independent observer similarity ratings. A linear mixed-effects model demonstrated that both visual and semantic similarity influenced the probability that distractors would be fixated. However, the visual similarity effect was substantially larger than the semantic similarity effect. We close by discussing the potential value of using this novel methodological approach and the implications for both simple and complex visual search displays.     

Visual short-term memory for sequential arrays

The capacity of visual short-term memory (VSTM) for a single visual display has been investigated in past research, but VSTM for multiple sequential arrays has been explored only recently. In this study, we investigate the capacity of VSTM across two sequential arrays separated by a variable stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). VSTM for spatial locations (Experiment 1), colors (Experiments 2-4), orientations (Experiments 3 and 4), and conjunction of color and orientation (Experiment 4) were tested, with the SOA across the two sequential arrays varying from 100 to 1,500 msec. We find that VSTM for the trailing array is much better than VSTM for the leading array, but when averaged across the two arrays VSTM has a constant capacity independent of the SOA. We suggest that multiple displays compete for retention in VSTM and that separating information into two temporally discrete groups does not enhance the overall capacity of VSTM.     

Phonological similarity and enhanced auditory recency in longer-term free recall

The effect of phonological similarity amongst list items on the modality effect was investigated in free recall with distraction activity interpolated before and after each list word. In Experiment 1 the distractor activity involved counting backward silently mouthing each number, and the modality effect was drastically attenuated by high similarity. This outcome is comparable with that found in immediate recall, and it is consistent with an echoic memory interpretation. In Experiment 2 the same backward-counting task was performed with each number being vocalized, and the modality effect was unaffected by phonological similarity. This outcome leads to the stronger conclusion that, under those conditions at least, the modality effect cannot be echoic. Implications of these findings for general theoretical accounts of the modality effect are discussed.