Abstract
Studies using tests such as digit span and nonword repetition have implicated short-term memory across a range of developmental domains. Such tests ostensibly assess specialized processes for the short-term manipulation and maintenance of information that are often argued to enable long-term learning. However, there is considerable evidence for an influence of long-term linguistic learning on performance in short-term memory tasks that brings into question the role of a specialized short-term memory system separate from long-term knowledge. Using natural language corpora, we show experimentally and computationally that performance on three widely used measures of short-term memory (digit span, nonword repetition, and sentence recall) can be predicted from simple associative learning operating on the linguistic environment to which a typical child may have been exposed. The findings support the broad view that short-term verbal memory performance reflects the application of long-term language knowledge to the experimental setting.
Highlights
Studies using tests such as digit span and nonword repetition have implicated short-term memory across a range of developmental domains
The sequences presented to participants in verbal short-term memory (vSTM) settings are by design novel, this Bnovelty^ is always a matter of degree: some novel sequences will more closely match the linguistic experience of the rememberer than others. We show that this grading of novelty is at play within our computational model of associative learning within those vSTM tasks typically used in the developmental setting
We show in two behavioral experiments that the efficiency which the model processes the types of material presented to children in vSTM tasks predicts how children perform in those settings, and we go on to discuss theoretical and methodological implications of these findings as they relate to the investigation of short-term memory and to domain-general mechanisms on the part of the rememberer
Summary
For digit and word lists, the independent variable was stimulus type (digits or words), and the dependent variable was the number of lists correctly recalled. Since sequences could involve more than two items (e.g., three-eighttwo), each paired sequence was examined (i.e., 1 point for correct recall of three-eight and 1 point for eight-two). The independent variables were stimulus type (digits or words) and sequence type (isolated item or item pair), with the dependent variable being the number of correct recalls of the relevant item (e.g., digit pair)
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