Set size and long-term memory/lexical effects in immediate serial recall: Testing the impurity principle

A number of recent studies have explored the role of long-term memory factors in memory span tasks. The effects of lexicality, frequency, imageability, and word class have been investigated. The work reported in this paper examined the effect of semantic organization on the recall of short lists of words. Specifically, the influence of semantic category on immediate serial recall and the interaction of this variable with articulatory suppression was investigated in three experiments. Experiment 1 compared immediate serial recall performance when lists comprising items from the same semantic category were used (homogeneous condition) with a situation where lists held items from different semantic categories. Experiment 2 examined the same conditions with and without articulatory suppression during item presentation, and Experiment 3 reproduced these conditions with suppression occurring throughout presentation and recall. Results of all three experiments showed a clear advantage for the homogeneous condition. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the homogeneous category advantage did not depend on the articulatory loop. Furthermore, error analysis indicated that this effect was mainly attributable to better item information recall for the homogeneous condition. These results are interpreted as reflecting a long-term memory contribution to the recall stage of immediate serial recall tasks.

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SKOOL versus ZOOL: Effects of orthographic and phonological long-term memory on nonword immediate serial recall

Memory ◽

10.1080/09658211.2011.590501 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 19 (5) ◽

pp. 487-500 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Jeremy J. Tree ◽

Chris Longmore ◽

Steve Majerus ◽

Nicky Evans

Keyword(s):

Serial Recall ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Term Memory ◽

Immediate Serial Recall

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Syllable frequency effects on phonological short-term memory tasks

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716402004071 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 23 (4) ◽

pp. 643-659 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

LISA M. NIMMO ◽

STEVEN ROODENRYS

Keyword(s):

Serial Recall ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Nonword Repetition ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Short Term ◽

Recall Accuracy ◽

Syllable Frequency ◽

Term Memory ◽

Frequency Effects

Recent evidence suggests that phonological short-term memory (STM) tasks are influenced by both lexical and sublexical factors inherent in the selection and construction of the stimuli to be recalled. This study examined whether long-term memory (LTM) influences STM at a sublexical level by investigating whether the frequency with which one-syllable nonwords occur in polysyllabic words influences recall accuracy on two phonological STM tasks, nonword repetition and serial recall. The results showed that recall accuracy increases when the stimuli to be recalled consist of one-syllable nonwords that occur often in polysyllabic English words. This result is consistent with the notion that LTM facilitates phonological STM at both a lexical and sublexical level. Implications for models of verbal STM are discussed.

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Freeing capacity in WM through the use of LTM representations

10.31234/osf.io/hj4rv ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Lea Maria Bartsch ◽

Peter Shepherdson

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Memory Load ◽

Recall Performance ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Interference Effects ◽

Term Memory ◽

Additional Information ◽

Set Size ◽

Low Performance

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. When WM load was low, performance declined with the addition of LTM pairs, but remained superior to performance with the matched set size comprising only new pairs. By contrast, when WM load was higher, adding LTM pairs did not affect performance. In Experiment 3 we found that the benefit of LTM representations arises from retrieving these during the WM test, leading them to suffer from typical interference effects. We conclude that individuals can outsource workload to LTM to optimise performance, and that the WM system negotiates the exchange of information between WM and LTM depending on the current memory load.

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How Does Semantic Knowledge Impact Working Memory Maintenance? Computational and Behavioral Investigations

10.31234/osf.io/tn4dj ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Benjamin Kowialiewski ◽

Sophie Portrat ◽

Benoit Lemaire

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Semantic Relatedness ◽

Semantic Knowledge ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Term Memory ◽

Immediate Serial Recall ◽

Serial Recall Task ◽

Memory Knowledge ◽

Tree Branch

It is now firmly established that long-term memory knowledge, such as semantic knowledge, supports the temporary maintenance of verbal information in Working Memory (WM). This support from semantic knowledge is well-explained by models assuming that verbal items are directly activated in long-term memory, and that this activation provides the representational basis for WM maintenance. However, the exact mechanisms underlying semantic influence on WM performance remain poorly understood. We manipulated the presence of between-item semantic relatedness in an immediate serial recall task, by mixing triplets composed of semantically related and unrelated items (e.g. leaf – tree – branch – wall – beer – dog; hand – father – truck – cloud – sky – rain). Compared to unrelated items, related items were better recalled, as had been classically observed. Critically, semantic relatedness also impacted WM maintenance in a complex manner, as observed by the presence of proactive benefit effects on subsequent unrelated items, and the absence of retroactive effects. The complexity of these interactions is well-captured by TBRS*-S, a decay-based computational architecture in which the activation occurring in long-term memory is described. The present study suggests that semantic knowledge can be used to free up WM resources that can be reallocated for maintenance purposes, and supports models postulating that long-term memory knowledge constrains WM maintenance processes.

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Towards a Theory of Working Memory

Working Memory ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198842286.003.0005 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 116-149 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Klaus Oberauer

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Computational Models ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Reproduction Task ◽

Term Memory ◽

Immediate Serial Recall ◽

Span Tasks ◽

Task Sets ◽

And Task

Working memory provides a medium for building and manipulating new representations that control our thoughts and actions. To fulfil this function, a working memory system needs to meet six requirements: (1) it must have a mechanism for rapidly forming temporary bindings to combine elements into new structures; (2) it needs a focus of attention for selectively accessing individual elements for processing; (3) it must hold both declarative representations of what is the case, and procedural representations of how to act on the current situation; (4) it needs a process for rapid updating, including rapid removal of outdated contents. Moreover, contents of working memory (5) need to be shielded from interference from long-term memory, while (6) working memory should be able to use information in long-term memory when it is useful. This chapter summarizes evidence in support of these mechanisms and processes. It presents three computational models that each implement some of these mechanisms, and explains different subsets of empirical findings about working memory: the SOB-CS model accounts for behaviour in tests of immediate serial recall, including complex-span tasks. The interference model explains data from a common test of visual working memory, the continuous-reproduction task. The set-selection model explains how people learn memory sets and task sets, how these sets are retrieved from long-term memory, and how these mechanisms enable switching between memory sets and task sets.

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Visuospatial Bootstrapping

Current Directions in Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/0963721416665342 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 3-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Stephen Darling ◽

Richard J. Allen ◽

Jelena Havelka

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Serial Recall ◽

Visual Information ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Cognitive Systems ◽

Short Term ◽

Term Memory ◽

Single Location

Visuospatial bootstrapping is the name given to a phenomenon whereby performance on visually presented verbal serial-recall tasks is better when stimuli are presented in a spatial array rather than a single location. However, the display used has to be a familiar one. This phenomenon implies communication between cognitive systems involved in storing short-term memory for verbal and visual information, alongside connections to and from knowledge held in long-term memory. Bootstrapping is a robust, replicable phenomenon that should be incorporated in theories of working memory and its interaction with long-term memory. This article provides an overview of bootstrapping, contextualizes it within research on links between long-term knowledge and short-term memory, and addresses how it can help inform current working memory theory.

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Effect of knowledge of set size on search termination in long-term memory

Psychonomic Science ◽

10.3758/bf03329033 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 20 (4) ◽

pp. 225-225 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Eugene Winograd

Keyword(s):

Long Term Memory ◽

Term Memory ◽

Set Size ◽

Search Termination

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The contribution of episodic Long-term Memory to Working Memory for Bindings.

10.31234/osf.io/a7w6x ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Lea Maria Bartsch ◽

Klaus Oberauer

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Proactive Interference ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Term Memory ◽

Double Dissociation ◽

Set Size

The Binding Hypothesis of working memory (WM) is that WM capacity is limited by interference between bindings but not items. It implies the prediction that with increasing set size, memory for bindings should decline, whereas memory for items should be (largely) unimpaired. Here we test the binding hypothesis for bindings between words and pictures. The first experiment supported the binding hypothesis, yet also revealed a strong hint that episodic LTM contributed substantially to binding memory, especially at larger set sizes. Therefore, our second goal was to investigate this contribution, and to isolate it from the contribution of WM to binding memory. Across three additional experiments we showed a double dissociation of contributions of WM and episodic LTM to binding memory: Performance at set sizes larger than 3 were specifically affected by proactive interference – but were immune to influences from a distractor filled delay. In contrast, performance at set size 2 was unaffected by proactive interference but harmed by a distractor filled delay.

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