Content-Specificity in Verbal Recall: A Randomized Controlled Study

Jan Zirk-Sadowski,Joni Holmes,Denes Szucs,Katsumi Watanabe

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0079528

Jan Zirk-Sadowski, Joni Holmes + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0079528

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Abstract

In this controlled experiment we examined whether there are content effects in verbal short-term memory and working memory for verbal stimuli. Thirty-seven participants completed forward and backward digit and letter recall tasks, which were constructed to control for distance effects between stimuli. A maximum-likelihood mixed-effects logistic regression revealed main effects of direction of recall (forward vs backward) and content (digits vs letters). There was an interaction between type of recall and content, in which the recall of digits was superior to the recall of letters in verbal short-term memory but not in verbal working memory. These results demonstrate that the recall of information from verbal short-term memory is content-specific, whilst the recall of information from verbal working memory is content-general.

Highlights

Working memory is the cognitive system responsible for the temporary maintenance and processing of information during complex cognitive activities
We explore whether different types of verbal information are handled differently within different aspects of the verbal memory system
The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether different types of information are handled differently in verbal STM and verbal working memory

Summary

Introduction

Working memory is the cognitive system responsible for the temporary maintenance and processing of information during complex cognitive activities. It is important for many everyday activities that require the online storage and processing of different types of information. These include reading comprehension, mental arithmetic, following directions, and reasoning [1,2,3,4]. In this experiment, we explore whether different types of verbal information (e.g. numbers and letters) are handled differently within different aspects of the verbal memory system. The primary distinction between these models is whether working memory is conceived of as a discrete entity (e.g., [7,8]) or a limited capacity process of controlled attention (e.g. [9,10,11])

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