Covert Rehearsal Research Articles

Short-term retention: Preparatory set as covert rehearsal.

Short-term retention: Preparatory set as covert rehearsal.

A method for observing rehearsal and natural language mediation in short-term memory

In a short-term memory (STM) study a modified “think aloud” method, using automated operant conditioning with points as reinforcers, effectively suppressed covert rehearsal but permitted overt rehearsal. Recall efficiency under modified think aloud conditions, with rehearsal and natural language mediators observable, did not differ significantly from recall efficiency under the silent condition. The new method may make possible observation of verbal mediation in STM and other verbal learning experiments.

Recall of paired-associates as a function of overt and covert rehearsal procedures

The effect on memory of the mode of studying paired associates was investigated with a continuous-presentation technique. Overt rehearsal was found to be superior to covert study for all Ss. Furthermore, the form of the forgetting curve was qualitatively different for the two study procedures. The overt-rehearsal curve dropped slowly at first and then very rapidly defining an S-shaped function, whereas the curve for the covert-study condition decayed exponentially. A mathematical model employing a short-term rehearsal buffer and a long-term memory state accurately predicted the data obtained under the two study conditions.

Effects of grouping on the pupillary response in a short-term memory task.

Subjects heard strings of nine digits for immediate recall, either at a monotone 1/sec. rate or in groups of three digits separated by pauses. Concurrent measurements of pupil size show a steady dilation in the monotone condition, and brief dilation-constriction waves during the pauses of grouped presentation. The results are consistent with hypotheses concerning rehearsal in the two modes of presentation. Pupillary dilations apparently accompany episodes of covert rehearsal.

Rehearsal effectiveness as a function of similarity of rehearsal activities to a paired-associate task

Rehearsal conditions were compared which varied in their degree of similarity to a task of learning paired associates. From greater to lesser similarity the conditions were: Stimulus Present, Blank List, Color Guessing, and Joke Reading. A comparison group continued directly into the criterion trials. Higher degrees of rehearsal similarity resulted in superior performances on the first recall trial after rehearsal. Learning performances on additional criterion trials were not influenced beyond the residual effects of the first recall. A preliminary experiment provided evidence that covert rehearsal to a continued presentation of stimuli is as beneficial as overt rehearsal.

Overt versus covert rehearsal in short-term memory

Following two silent rehearsals, lists were better recalled than they were following two voiced rehearsals, but there was no interaction between voicing at presentation and voicing during rehearsal. These results held both for forced-order and semi-free order recall, though in the latter recency-effects were enhanced following unvoiced rehearsal. The findings are discussed with respect to the feasibility of using overt rehearsal as a means of investigating rehearsal-processes in general.

Motivational Factors in Short-Term Retention: II. Rehearsal or Arousal?

Two experiments which investigate the effects of motivation on memory are reported. In the initial study it was demonstrated that recall instrumental to shock avoidance enhances short-term retention. By varying the difficulty of the task interpolated between stimulus onset and recall it was established that the augmented recall is not mediated by covert rehearsal. In Exp. II the motivational information (arousal) occurred at 1, 3, or 5 sec. after stimulus and response offset. Arousal after the stimulus and response terms facilitated immediate recall, although there were no significant differences in retention as a function of the time of the motivational input. The effects of arousal on retention and the relationship of motivation to trace storage and trace retrieval were discussed.

The effects of covert rehearsal on the development of a complex motor skill.

The effects of covert rehearsal on the development of a complex motor skill.

Effects of incentive and incentive-cue position on short-term retention

Ss recalled CCC trigrams differing in incentive value, temporal position of incentive cue, and length of retention interval. Recall varied as a function of incentive and retention interval, but was unrelated to cue position. Additional evidence suggested that differential learning and covert rehearsal may mediate the facilitative effects of incentive.

A symbolic interactionist model of human communication

In the preceding pages, I have presented an elementary description of the manner in which symbolic interactionist principles could be applied to the analysis and description of some theoretical and empirical issues in the field of human communication. The general method of exposition has been essentially a naturalistic and phenomenological one based upon the view that the most enlightening social psychological approach to an understanding of communication begins with a consideration of what the human individual is actually doing when he encodes and transmits messages, and when he receives and decodes messages, in the real social situation in which this kind of behavior occurs. I have also tried to give due attention to the fact that any explanatory system designed to operate on this macroscopic, molar level must provide ways whereby it can be logically connected up with structures and processes existing on the underlying molecular levels of neurophysiology and general psychology. As I have pointed out, the symbolic interactionist does not hesitate to speculate about some of the general processes that may be operating inside the individual, in the black box, and I have suggested that the term “covert rehearsal” might be used as the name for these internal processes as the symbolic interactionist conceptualizes them. Mead himself speculated freely about these inner processes. In fact, as has been indicated, the full recognition of the necessity of exploring these processes (the “inner experience of the individual”) was to him the principal distinction between the radical behaviorism of his time and the social behaviorism that he was building. Many of the basic insights and theoretical principles that are historically associated with symbolic interactionism have already become the common property of all social psychologists and many communications theorists. Some of these have been borrowed directly or indirectly from the symbolic interactionist literature; others have grown up independently as logical developments of empirical and theoretical work initially grounded in other perspectives. What I have tried to do here is not to claim priority or proprietorship of everything on behalf of symbolic interactionism, but to show how all—or at least a major portion—of this work can be assimilated into a relatively simple frame of reference derived from that doctrine—a perspective that will, if nothing else, have considerable descriptive and explanatory power. Hopefully, this perspective and the model built upon it will also have additional uses : they will have significant heuristic value in suggesting leads for further refinement of the model and the underlying theory, and for testing the theory by future empirical research.

Natural language mediation and covert rehearsal in short-term memory

The short-term effects of natural language mediators and covert repetitions were studied using high and low meaningfulness CCCS with a presentation time of 2 sec., a retention interval of 30 sec., and an interpolated activity of counting backward by threes. Each S was given four items of the same level of meaningfulness. There were 96 Ss in each group. NLMS and covert rehearsal were both significant factors in recall. NLMS were found to deter proactive inhibition.

Classification and aural coding in short-term memory

Analysis of errors in a short-term memory task indicates that Ss adopted two possible coding strategies: digit vs. letter categorization and subvocal or aural rehearsal. White noise had no effect on types of errors made or on over-all performance, but did bring out the usually covert rehearsal process. Evidence from errors and effects of noise point to a reinterpretation of “auditory” coding in terms of kinesthetic feedback produced by subvocal rehearsal.