A Multinomial Processing Tree Model for Degradation and Redintegration in Immediate Recall

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

A Multinomial Processing Tree Model for Degradation and Redintegration in Immediate Recall Memory & Cognition 1993, 21 (2), 168-175 A multinomial processing tree model for degradation and redintegration in immediate recall RICHARD SCHWEICKERT Purdue University. West Lafayette. Indiana When items are presented for immediate recall, a verbal trace is formed and degrades quickly, becoming useless after about 2 sec. The span for items such as digits equals the number of items that can be pronounced in the available time. The length of the items affects span by affecting pronunciation rate. Other properties, such as phonological similarity and lexicality, can affect span without affecting pronunciation rate. These properties change the trace's useful lifetime by affecting redintegration. An analogy is drawn between trace reconstruction and repair of er­ rors in speech. When a trace is degraded, one process attempts to form a phoneme string, and another process attempts to form a word. The two processes are autonomous and can be selec­ tively influenced by lexicality and phonological similarity. The resulting processing tree models make simple predictions that depend on whether or not the influenced processes are sequential. The results are illustrated with data from experiments by Besner and Davelaar (1982). It has been known since at least the time of Oliver Wen­ correct if it is completed before the trace degrades to an dell Holmes (1871, p. 101) that a person cannot repeat unusable state. The trace can be refreshed by rehearsing verbatim a list of unrelated items immediately after pre­ the material, provided the time required to pronounce the sentation, unless the list is short. To this day, we do not items internally is less than the trace degradation time. know what determines how long the list can be. The num­ Memory span is often defined as the number of items ber of items in the list is not limited per se, because mem­ in a list that, half of the time, can be recalled in order ory span differs for different materials such as shape immediately after presentation. Then, the time to pro­ names and color names (Brener, 1940). Furthermore, the nounce a list of span length equals the time at which the span for a single material (e.g., digits) can differ when trace has become unusable. Ordinarily, this time is about the same individual uses different languages (e.g., Ellis 2 sec. & HenneUey, 1980). These facts challenge Miller's (1956) A particular version of this hypothesis is given in the idea that the span is limited to a certain number ofchunks model of Schweickert and Boruff (1986). It accounts for or meaningful units (according to this hypothesis, why differences in memory span for different materials in should the number of chunks in a list of digits change when terms of a race between recall and degradation of the the language is changed?). trace. According to the model, a list will be recalled cor­ A leading hypothesis is that short-term memory is not rectly if the time T, required to emit the list is less than limited to a number of items or chunks but is limited by the duration Tv of the verbal trace. Then, the probability the time for which a trace endures (Baddeley, Thomson, of correct recall is P = P[T, :5 Tvl. & Buchanan, 1975; Brown, 1958; Mackworth, 1963; The model leads to an equation originally proposed by Muter, 1980; Peterson & Peterson, 1959; Schweickert Baddeley et al. (1975) relating memory span, s, and pro­ & Boruff, 1986). According to this hypothesis, when nunciation rate, r, items are presented, a trace is formed and begins to de­ (1) grade, perhaps by decaying over time or by becoming s = rt + c, noisy because of interference. The useful lifetime of the in which t is the time required to pronounce a list of span trace will depend on what it is used for. Recall will be length. The intercept c is sometimes interpreted as the number of items recalled with the assistance of long-term knowledge (e.g., Hulme, Maughan, & Brown, 1991), al­ I thank William H. Batchelder, Gordon Brown, Richard Chechile, though Schweickert, Guentert, and Hersberger (1990) ar­ Nelson Cowan, Xiangen Hu, Randi Martin, and Mary C. Potter for gue that nonzero intercept values may be caused by an their helpful comments. Portions of this work were supported by NSF artifact. Grant DBS-9123865. Data in Tables I and 2 are copyrighted 1982 by Because one way to define the pronunciation rate r is the Canadian Psychological Association and are reprinted with permis­ with this equation, the fact that it holds is not surprising, sion. Correspondence should be addressed to the author at the Depart­ ment of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, nor is the fact that word length changes the pronuncia­ IN 47907. tion rate. What is surprising is that under a wide variety Copyright 1993 Psychonomic Society, Inc. 168 DEGRADATION AND REDINTEGRATION 169 of circumstances, the time t is about the same, approxi­ The results of the experiments just described were in­ mately 2 sec, regardless of word length (Baddeley et al., terpreted by the investigators to mean that the trace du­ 1975; Hulme, Thomson, Muir, & Lawrence, 1984; Mack­ ration can be extended by the reconstruction of partially worth, 1963; Schweickert & Boruff, 1986). The time t degraded traces. Reconstruction is easier if the items are can be interpreted as the mean trace duration. The invari­ words and if they are phonologically dissimilar (Sperling ance of this time over materials initially suggested that & Speelman, 1970). the trace duration is relatively constant and that the limit Cowan (in press) gives a detailed treatment of the role on memory span could be explained in terms of a limit of trace reconstruction. He proposed that trace reactiva­ on the time available for rehearsal or recall. This hypoth­ tion takes place in the pauses between items during spoken esis is contradicted by recent experiments, described in recall and that decay of the traces of items takes place the next section, in which the time t was malleable. Recon­ during actual speaking. The model in the following sec­ sideration of Equation 1 shows that a variable affecting tion can be thought of as sketching in a few details about memory span can do so by affecting the pronunciation what goes on during the reconstruction postulated in Co­ rate r, the trace duration t, the intercept c, or some com­ wan's model. Since the following model is not necessar­ bination of these. If variables affecting memory span al­ ily tied to the model of Cowan, I use the terms degrada­ ways affected all of the parameters, the equation would tion and redintegration in lieu of his terms decay and provide no resolving power. But the studies mentioned reactivation. above have shown that word length affects the pronunci­ ation rate r, without affecting the trace duration t. This A Model for Trace Degradation and Redintegration leads to the question of whether there are variables capa­ The challenge in modeling short-term memory trace ble of affecting memory span in another way, by chang­ redintegration is that so little is known about the nature ing t or c without changing r. of degraded traces that it is premature to specify details about how missing or noisy features are reconstituted. Phonological Similarity Some knowledge about degraded traces is available; for Hulme and Tordoff(1989) and, independently, Schweick­ example, Cowan and Morse (1986) provide a detailed ert et al. (1990) carried out experiments to investigate the analysis of vowel changes in short-term memory. But until locus of the effect of phonological similarity in serial or­ more is known, modeling with a moderate level of detail dered recall. The experiments differed in several respects, seems most likely to succeed, and multinomial processing but each supported the conclusion that phonological sim­ trees are useful structures for this purpose (Batchelder & ilarity can affect memory span without changing speak­ Riefer, 1986, 1990; Chechile, 1987; Chechile & Meyer, ing rate. That is, phonologically similar items have a 1976; Hu & Batchelder, 1992; Riefer & Batchelder, smaller memory span because they have a shorter useful 1988). In a multinomial processing tree (e.g., Figure 1), trace duration. an attempt to recall an item is carried out with a sequence of cognitive processes represented by branches on a path Lexicality from the root of the tree to one of the terminal nodes. Memory span is typically greater for words than for The outcome of the recall attempt depends on which ter­ nonwords. In the experiment by Schweickert and Boruff minal node is reached. (1986), the nonwords were pronounced more slowly than The model in Figure 1 represents the act of immediate the words, suggesting that the effect of lexicality could recall of a single item in a randomly ordered list. A com­ simply be a by-product of an effect on pronunciation rate. plete account of immediate recall would model aspects However, Hulme et al. (1991) found that when words and such as serial position effects and memory for the order nonwords were selected so that speech rates were equated, of the items (see, e.g., Lee & Estes, 1977; Nairne, 1991; memory span for the words was greater than memory span Shiffrin & Cook, 1978); a complete account would also for the nonwords. They concluded that, for their data, lexicality affected the intercept c in Equation 1, but did c not affect r. Support from an independent experiment was reported by Schweickert, Ansel, and McDaniel (1991). The words and nonwords used as stimuli were closely matched in several ways. Each list of items was presented visually and rehearsed aloud once; during this rehearsal, words and nonwords were spoken at the same rate.
Recommended publications
  • Richard Semon's Theory of Memory
    JOURNAL OF VERBAL LEARNING AND VERBAL BEHAVIOR 17, 721--743 (1978) Richard Semon's Theory of Memory DANIEL L. SCHACTER, JAMES ERIC EICH, AND ENDEL TULVlNG University of Toronto In the first decade of the 20th century, Richard Semon put forward a theory of memory that anticipated numerous recent developments in memory research. The theory is discussed both in its historical context and with reference to modem ideas. Semon's theoretical concern for retrieval phenomena is particularly noteworthy. Several reasons are suggested why the theory is virtually unknown today. Current research in the area of human Wolfgang Semon, a German scientist who memory owes many of its present orienting wrote two books on the subject of human attitudes and research techniques to pioneer- memory in the first decade of the 20th century. ing psychologists of the late 19th and early In fact, Semon's work has been almost com- 20th centuries. Among the most well known pletely ignored by mainstream psychologists and important of these early investigators are concerned with processes of memory and Hermann Ebbinghaus, who performed the learning; later in this paper we will explore first systematic laboratory studies of human some of the reasons why Semon's work has memory; William James, whose distinction been bypassed. Yet prominent anatomist J. Z. between primary and secondary memory is Young (1965, p.288) commented that still today the target of much research and "...many modern ideas on the subject [of theorizing~ G. E. Miiller, who performed memoryl go back to Richard Semon...;" important early research on grouping and Gestalt psychologist Kurt Koffka (1935, interference; and Sir Frederic Bartlett, whose p.
    [Show full text]
  • Redintegration and Lexicality Effects in Children: Do They Depend Upon the Demands of the Memory Task?
    Memory & Cognition 2004, 32 (3), 501-510 Redintegration and lexicality effects in children: Do they depend upon the demands of the memory task? JUDY E. TURNER University of Reading, Reading, England LUCY A. HENRY Institute of Psychiatry, London, England and PHILIP T. SMITH and PENELOPE A. BROWN University of Reading, Reading, England The effect of long-term knowledge upon performance in short-term memory tasks was examined for children from 5 to 10 years of age. The emergence of a lexicality effect, in which familiar words were recalled more accurately than unfamiliar words, was found to depend upon the nature of the memory task. Lexicality effects were interpreted as reflecting the use of redintegration, or reconstruction pro- cesses, in short-term memory. Redintegration increased with age for tasks requiring spoken item recall and decreased with age when position information but not naming was required. In a second experi- ment, redintegration was found in a recognition task when some of the foils rhymed with the target. Older children were able to profit from a rhyming foil, whereas younger children were confused by it, suggesting that the older children make use of sublexical phonological information in reconstructing the target. It was proposed that redintegrative processes in their mature form support the reconstruc- tion of detailed phonological knowledge of words. The concept of redintegration has proved to be a pro- memory tasks. For example, long-term knowledge has an ductive approach to examining why long-term memory effect prelexically: Vitevitch and Luce (1999) found that (LTM) knowledge affects performance on short-term decisions could be made more rapidly about auditory memory (STM) tasks.
    [Show full text]
  • Semantic Coherence Stabilizes Phonological Sequences in Short-Term Memory : Semantic Coherence Stabilizes Phonological Sequences in Short-Term Memory
    This is a repository copy of Keeping It Together: Semantic Coherence Stabilizes Phonological Sequences in Short-Term Memory : Semantic coherence stabilizes phonological sequences in short-term memory. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/125356/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Savill, Nicola, Ellis, Rachel, Brooke, Emma et al. (6 more authors) (2017) Keeping It Together: Semantic Coherence Stabilizes Phonological Sequences in Short-Term Memory : Semantic coherence stabilizes phonological sequences in short-term memory. Memory & Cognition. pp. 1-12. ISSN 0090-502X https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-017-0775-3 Reuse Items deposited in White Rose Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved unless indicated otherwise. They may be downloaded and/or printed for private study, or other acts as permitted by national copyright laws. The publisher or other rights holders may allow further reproduction and re-use of the full text version. This is indicated by the licence information on the White Rose Research Online record for the item. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Running head: SEMANTIC AND PHONOLOGICAL COHERENCE This is a postprint of a paper to appear in Memory & Cognition DOI: 10.3758/s13421-017-0775-3 Keeping It Together: Semantic Coherence
    [Show full text]
  • Freeing Capacity in WM Through the Use of LTM Representations
    Freeing capacity in WM through the use of LTM representations Lea M. Bartsch1 and Peter Shepherdson2 1 University of Zurich 2 University of Akureyri Author Note We thank Atalia Adank and Dawid Strzelczyk for helping with data collection. The preregistration, data and the analysis scripts can be accessed on the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/7d9aj/). Correspondence should be addressed to Lea M. Bartsch, E-mail: [email protected]. © 2021, American Psychological Association. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the final, authoritative version of the article. Please do not copy or cite without authors' permission. The final article will be available, upon publication, via its DOI: 10.1037/xlm0001024 Freeing capacity in WM through the use of LTM representations 2 Abstract Previous research indicates that long-term memory (LTM) may contribute to performance in working memory (WM) tasks. Across three experiments we investigated the extent to which active maintenance in WM can be replaced by relying on information stored in episodic LTM, thereby freeing capacity for additional information in WM. First, participants encoded word pairs into LTM, and then completed a WM task, also involving word pairs. Crucially, the pairs presented in each WM trial comprised varying numbers of new pairs and the previously learned LTM pairs. Experiment 1 showed that recall performance in the WM task was unaffected when memory set size increased through the addition of LTM pairs, but that it deteriorated when set size increased through adding new pairs. In Experiment 2 we investigated the robustness of this effect, orthogonally manipulating the number of new and LTM pairs used in the WM task.
    [Show full text]
  • Verbal Short-Term Memory Reflects the Organization of Long-Term
    VERBAL SHORT-TERM MEMORY REFLECTS THE ORGANIZATION OF LONG-TERM MEMORY. FURTHER EVIDENCE FROM SHORT-TERM MEMORY FOR EMOTIONAL WORDS. Steve Majerus 1,2 & Arnaud D‟Argembeau 1,2 1 Université de Liège, Belgium 2 Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique FNRS, Belgium RUNNING HEAD: STM AND EMOTIONAL VALENCE Journal of Memory and Language, 2011, 64, 181-197 Address for correspondence: Steve Majerus, PhD Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Boulevard du Rectorat, B33 4000 Liège, Belgium Phone : 0032 4 3664656 Fax : 0032 4 3662808 Email : [email protected] 1 ABSTRACT Many studies suggest that long-term lexical-semantic knowledge is an important determinant of verbal short-term memory (STM) performance. This study explored the impact of emotional valence on word immediate serial recall as a further lexico-semantic long-term memory (LTM) effect on STM. This effect is particularly interesting for the study of STM-LTM interactions since emotional words not only activate specific lexico-semantic LTM features but also capture attentional resources, and hence allow for the study of both LTM and attentional factors on STM tasks. In Experiments 1 and 2, we observed a robust effect of emotional valence on pure list recall in both young and elderly adults, with higher recall performance for emotional lists as opposed to neutral lists, as predicted by increased LTM support for emotional words. In Experiments 3 and 4 however, using mixed lists, it was the lists containing a minority of emotional words which led to higher recall performance over lists containing a majority of emotional words. This was predicted by a weak version of the attentional capture account.
    [Show full text]
  • An ERP Study of Lexical and Sublexical Processing
    Immediate Auditory Repetition of Words and Nonwords: An ERP Study of Lexical and Sublexical Processing Xiaorong Cheng1,2,3, Graham Schafer3*, Patricia M. Riddell3 1 Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior (CCNU), Ministry of Education, Wuhan, China, 2 School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China, 3 School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom Abstract ERPs were elicited to (1) words, (2) pseudowords derived from these words, and (3) nonwords with no lexical neighbors, in a task involving listening to immediately repeated auditory stimuli. There was a significant early (P200) effect of phonotactic probability in the first auditory presentation, which discriminated words and pseudowords from nonwords; and a significant somewhat later (N400) effect of lexicality, which discriminated words from pseudowords and nonwords. There was no reliable effect of lexicality in the ERPs to the second auditory presentation. We conclude that early sublexical phonological processing differed according to phonotactic probability of the stimuli, and that lexically-based redintegration occurred for words but did not occur for pseudowords or nonwords. Thus, in online word recognition and immediate retrieval, phonological and/or sublexical processing plays a more important role than lexical level redintegration. Citation: Cheng X, Schafer G, Riddell PM (2014) Immediate Auditory Repetition of Words and Nonwords: An ERP Study of Lexical and Sublexical Processing. PLoS ONE 9(3): e91988. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0091988 Editor: Kevin Paterson, University of Leicester, United Kingdom Received December 3, 2013; Accepted February 16, 2014; Published March 18, 2014 Copyright: ß 2014 Cheng et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
    [Show full text]
  • Free Recall of Word Lists Differing in Phonological Similarity, Word Frequency, and Phonotactic Pattern Frequency in SLI
    Free recall of word lists differing in phonological similarity, word frequency, and phonotactic pattern frequency in SLI Jeffry A. Coady Julia L. Evans Elina Mainela-Arnold Keith R. Kluender Boston University San Diego State University Penn State University University of Wisconsin Abstract Memory Deficits in SLI Method Results Phonological encoding refers Phonological Similarity to the reciprocal processes in Children with SLI have difficulty with verbal recall. Participants 1. Group. Children with SLI recalled 100 which phonological strings are SLI TYP fewer words overall. broken down into smaller In recall tasks, children with SLI recall fewer items than their typically developing peers. 16 monolingual English-speaking children with SLI and 16 age-matched control children 80 t units for subsequent tasks like 1 c e r 60 Some theories view this as an underlying cause of SLI , while others view memory participated. All children had highly intelligible articulation and nonverbal IQ scores r o 2. List Length. Accuracy decreased as C recall or repetition, or where t n 2 e c r 40 deficits as resulting from a more pervasive linguistic deficit . greater than 85. The children with SLI included 2 with E-SLI and 14 with ER-SLI, 9 e smaller units are combined P list length increased. This effect was into larger phonological 1Gathercole & Baddeley, 1990; 2van der Lely & Howard, 1993; MacDonald & Christiansen, 2002 females and 7 males aged 8;7 to 11;8. The age-matched control children included 8 20 the same for both groups. strings for articulation. It can be measured by having females and 8 males aged 8;5 to 12;3.
    [Show full text]
  • Computational Models of Working Memory: Putting Long-Term Memory Into Context
    Review TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences Vol.9 No.11 November 2005 Computational models of working memory: putting long-term memory into context Neil Burgess1 and Graham Hitch2 1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR, UK 2Department of Psychology, York University, York, YO10 5DD, UK Detailed computational modeling of human memory important for the other and how they interact is a topical has typically been aimed at either short-term (working) question in memory research [12,13]. memory or long-term memory in isolation. However, One of the clearest examples of the dissociation recent research highlights the importance of inter- between STM and LTM comes from the Hebb repetition actions between these systems for both item and effect, in which repeated presentation of a digit sequence order information. At the same time, computational for ISR results in gradual learning of that sequence, even models of both systems are beginning to converge onto though presentation and recall of other sequences a common framework in which items are associated intervenes between the repetitions [14]. Hebb concluded with an evolving ‘context’ signal and subsequently that there must be some change in LTM from a single trial. compete with one another at recall. We review some Milner and colleagues subsequently found that the Hebb of these models, and discuss a common mechanism repetition effect for lists of digits or spatial locations capable of modelling working memory and its inter- depended on the integrity of the medial temporal lobe action with long-term memory, focussing on memory (more specifically, on the left and right hippocampi, for verbal sequences.
    [Show full text]
  • Effects of Irrelevant Auditory Stimuli on a Text Recognition and Text Recall Task
    Psychologia, 2007, 50, 133–149 EFFECTS OF IRRELEVANT AUDITORY STIMULI ON A TEXT RECOGNITION AND TEXT RECALL TASK Michiko MIYAHARA1) and Toru GOSHIKI2) 1)Kyoto University, Japan, 2)Shizuoka University, Japan This article aimed to investigate whether auditory stimuli disrupt the performance of a text recognition task (Experiment1) and a text recall task (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, Spanish speech sounds that disrupted the serial recall task (Miyahara & Goshiki, 2004) were presented during the learning phase of the task. The Spanish speech had a reduced d’, which indicates that the text recognition task was also disrupted. In Experiment 2, Japanese speech sounds or office noise were presented during either the learning only phase, recall only phase, or during both the phases. The results were that both types of auditory stimuli could disrupt the text recall task, and this effect was independent of the meaning of the speech sounds and the presenting phase. Our results could be interpreted by Cowan’s model (1995, 1999) with the inclusion of two modifications. Key words: text recognition, text recall, speech sound, office noise, irrelevant speech effect People carry out everyday cognitive activities in environments that are characterized by various irrelevant auditory stimuli. For example, unwanted noise or speech has been pointed out as a major source of attentional disruption in schools and workplaces (Hyggs, 2003; Landström, Söderberg, Kjellberg, & Nordström, 2002). Similarly, the performance of a cognitive task is disrupted by irrelevant and unattended sounds or speech despite an individual’s best efforts at ignoring them. (For a review, see Beaman, 2005; Banbury, Tremblay, Macken, & Jones, 2001; Jones, 1995).
    [Show full text]
  • Savill, Nicola ORCID: Ellis, Andrew W
    Savill, Nicola ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6854-0658, Ellis, Andrew W. and Jefferies, Elizabeth (2016) Newly-acquired words are more phonologically robust in verbal short-term memory when they have associated semantic representations. Neuropsychologia, 98. pp. 85-97. Downloaded from: http://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/2501/ The version presented here may differ from the published version or version of record. If you intend to cite from the work you are advised to consult the publisher's version: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028393216300690 Research at York St John (RaY) is an institutional repository. It supports the principles of open access by making the research outputs of the University available in digital form. Copyright of the items stored in RaY reside with the authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full text items free of charge, and may download a copy for private study or non-commercial research. For further reuse terms, see licence terms governing individual outputs. Institutional Repository Policy Statement RaY Research at the University of York St John For more information please contact RaY at [email protected] Newly-acquired words are more phonologically robust in verbal short-term memory when they have associated semantic representations Nicola Savill, Andrew W. Ellis and Elizabeth Jefferies Department of Psychology, University of York, UK To appear in Neuropsychologia doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.03.006 Corresponding Author: Nicola Savill Department of Psychology, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD UK Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)1904 322937 Fax: +44(0)1904 323181 Keywords: novel word learning; phonological representations; semantic binding; short-term memory; lexicalisation; meaning 1 Abstract Verbal short-term memory (STM) is a crucial cognitive function central to language learning, comprehension and reasoning, yet the processes that underlie this capacity are not fully understood.
    [Show full text]
  • An Analysis of Sentence Repetitions in a Single-Talker Interference Task
    AN ANALYSIS OF SENTENCE REPETITIONS IN A SINGLE-TALKER INTERFERENCE TASK Hilary Parlette A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE May 2015 Committee: Alexander Goberman, Advisor Miriam Krause Ronald Scherer ii ABSTRACT Listening to speech is a complex process which is made more difficult when distractions, such as noise or other speech, occur at the same time. People often experience competing speech signals in daily life, such as at a noisy restaurant where they must regulate their attention to focus on the target and block out distractions. This study examined complex speech processing using a single-talker interference task, which requires participants to listen to two talkers simultaneously, ignoring a distracter talker while repeating a target talker. The talkers in this study were a native speaker of English (NS) and a non-native speaker of English (NNS). Twelve nonimpaired participants’ listening accuracy (measured by target words repeated) was observed in the contexts of nativeness of speaker, participant characteristics, and performance of standardized measures. No significant correlations were found between cognitive measures and repetition accuracy. An interaction effect was found between the variables of foreign language experience and repetition accuracy of the NS target sentences. This study also included a descriptive observation of participants’ repetition errors, intended as a first step toward identifying possible strategies nonimpaired individuals use in difficult listening situations. The most common types of errors participants made during sentence repetitions were phonetic and semantic errors. There were no significant correlations between error types and accuracy of target repetition.
    [Show full text]
  • S Short-Term Memory: Typical Development and Dyslexia
    JournalMemory & Cognition 2005, ??33 (?),(7), ???-???1210-1219 Phonological similarity neighborhoods and children’s short-term memory: Typical development and dyslexia JENNIFER M. THOMSON University College London, London, England and ULLA RICHARDSON and USHA GOSWAMI University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England In this article, we explore whether structural characteristics of the phonological lexicon affect serial recall in typically developing and dyslexic children. Recent work has emphasized the importance of long-term phonological representations in supporting short-term memory performance. This occurs via redintegration (reconstruction) processes, which show significant neighborhood density effects in adults. We assessed whether serial recall in children was affected by neighborhood density in word and nonword tasks. Furthermore, we compared dyslexic children with typically developing children of the same age or reading level. Dyslexic children are held to have impaired phonological representations of lexical items. These impaired representations may impair or prevent the use of long-term phonological representations to redintegrate short-term memory traces. We report significant rime neighborhood density effects for serial recall of both words and nonwords, for both dyslexic and typically develop- ing children. Phonological short-term memory plays an important rial recall posit a short-term phonological or articulatory role in the development of the lexicon. Gathercole and loop that retains verbal information on a temporary basis
    [Show full text]