Chapter Fifteen - Modality effect for random digit sequences

Abstract

Hamada (1990b) used, not an immediate recall method, a successive recall one and revealed that visual and auditory memory are processed independently. He showed also that auditory digits have a unidirectional inhibitory effect on visual memory during memorization in the paired different digits condition, but not vice versa. In the overlapping digits condition with the same digit of Hamada (1986, 1988b), the performance in the center of the serial position curves showed that auditory digits had an inhibitory effect on visual memory in the short-cycle presentation condition, but this effect disappeared in the long-cycle, and a weak inhibitory effect remained in the middle-cycle. Thus, there is an audio-visual memory that inhibits high-performing visual memory in the short- and middle-cycle conditions. However, the visual and auditory digits in the interchanging presentation condition interfere with each other. On the other hand, the performance at the end of the serial position curve is determined by the high-performing auditory memory in any conditions.