High-speed memory scan as a retention interval activity in short-term memory

Abstract

A Sternberg high-speed memory scan task was used as a retention interval activity in a standard Brown-Peterson paradigm. Two levels of Sternberg search set, one or five items, were employed to see if the differential memory load produced by the different size search sets resulted in differential recall in the Brown-Peterson task. A comparison was made to a control condition in which S was required to shadow digits during the retention interval. No differential effect on recall of memory load was found when the Sternberg tasks were compared across three different retention intervals. Very little forgetting was produced by the Sternberg tasks as compared to the digit shadowing condition. Results are discussed in terms of the need for verbal activity to prevent rehearsal in short-term memory.