Working memory span for pictures, names, and touched objects

Abstract

Through an immediate serial recall task, working memory for objects’ pictures, objects’ names and touched objects was evaluated with and without a simultaneous articulatory suppression task. Each group performed the task in one modality: seeing object pictures presented on a computer screen, reading out loud two-syllabic object names presented in a computer screen, or touching real objects without sight. The task was performed twice by the participants, once with articulatory suppression and once without articulatory suppression. The objects were presented sequentially for three seconds each, starting with lists of two items and progressively increasing the number of items by one, according to the participant’s performance, until a maximum of 10 items. The results showed that span values were similar in the three modalities, with an average of five items being recalled without articulatory suppression and about four items being recalled with articulatory suppression. This study suggests similar performance in immediate serial recall tasks regardless of presentation modality. Articulatory suppression presented an equivalent effect in all groups, impairing recall performance in average by one item. Results are discussed attending to the verbal nature of the task, which implies the recall of the object’s name, and the impact of articulatory suppression in common object’s encoding.