The influence of rhythm on short-term memory for serial order.

Simon Gorin

doi:10.1177/1747021820941358

Abstract

In the field of verbal short-term memory (STM), numerous theoretical models have been proposed to explain how serial order information is processed and represented. Evidence suggests that serial order is represented through associations between items and a varying contextual signal coding the position of each item in a sequence, but the nature of this contextual signal is still a matter of debate (i.e., event-based vs. time-based varying signal). According to event-based models of serial order, the contextual signal coding serial order is not sensitive to temporal manipulations, as it is the case in irregularly timed sequences. Up to now, the study of the temporal factors influencing serial order STM has been limited to temporal grouping and temporal isolation effects. The goal of the present study is to specify in more detail the role played by temporal factors in serial order STM tasks. To accomplish this, we compared recall performance and error patterns for sequences presenting items at a regular or an irregular and unpredictable timing in three experiments. The results showed that irregular timing does not affect serial recall nor the pattern of errors. These data clearly favour the view that serial order in verbal STM is represented with event-based rather than time-based codes.

Highlights

The problem of serial order that characterizes a series of human behaviors and cognitive activities has since a long time fascinated the scientific community
The results showed that irregular timing does not affect serial recall nor the pattern of errors
The best model is the one containing only the effect of serial position, preferred over the second best model containing the two main effects of serial position and sequence type by a factor of 2.04. This means that the data are roughly two times more likely to have been obtained under the model with only the serial position effect rather than the same model complemented with the effect of sequence type

Summary

Introduction

The problem of serial order that characterizes a series of human behaviors and cognitive activities has since a long time fascinated the scientific community (see Lashley, 1951). Consider a professional musician for whom it is critical to retrieve, plan and produce rapidly, series of movements in their correct serial order to perform a musical piece. Even though such activity requires a set of high-level skills and a lot of training, the same problem of serial order applies to everyday life situations, such as following a cooking recipe or remembering a phone number. Even an activity as simple as remembering a list of digits or letters requires a set of complex cognitive mechanisms (see Hurlstone, Hitch, & Baddeley, 2014; Lewandowsky & Farrell, 2008). Tasks requiring to recall serial order information from STM are characterized by a set of well-reproduced benchmark phenomena serving as a basis for the development of computational accounts of the different ordering processes involved in STM (for a review, see Hurlstone et al, 2014; Lewandowsky & Farrell, 2008; Oberauer et al, 2018)

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