Short-term Memory Effects Research Articles

Modality effects in recognition short-term motor memory.

Modality effects in recognition short-term motor memory.

Word-Length Effects in Short-Term Memory

(1973). Word-Length Effects in Short-Term Memory. The Journal of General Psychology: Vol. 89, No. 1, pp. 151-152.

Cued Forgetting: Short-Term Memory Effect

This study investigated the effectiveness of a “forgetting cue” under different inter-stimulus intervals. Each S had each combination of 3 list conditions (2 trigrams, no cue; 2 trigrams, with cue; 1 trigram) and 3 inter-stimulus intervals (6, 15, and 40 sec.). Recall of the second trigram was measured. Performance with the cue was significantly better at 6 and 15 sec., while at 40 sec., there was no difference between 3 list conditions.

Visual Free Recall

Lists of complex pictures, not easily encoded verbally, were presented to subjects who recalled them by writing brief descriptions. The lists were 10, 20, and 40 pictures in length. Recall failed to show the primacy and recency effects seen with verbal materials, but was lower for pictures in longer lists. This argues for serial-position effects based in short-term memory and independent list-length effects arising during retrieval from long-term memory.

Learning and interference effects in short-term memory.

Learning and interference effects in short-term memory.

Locus of proactive interference effects in short-term memory.

Locus of proactive interference effects in short-term memory.

Interference in memory between tones adjacent in the musical scale.

Pitch recognition was required alter a 4-sec. delay during which 4 other tones were played. When the standard (S) and comparison (C) tones were identical in pitch, the inclusion of a tone in the intervening sequence that was a semitone higher or lower than the S tone produced an increase in errors. Including tones both a semitone higher and a semitone lower in the same intervening sequence produced a further increase in errors. Analogous results were obtained when the S and C tones differed in pitch. However, when the critical intervening tone was identical in pitch to the C tone, errors were further increased. This paper is concerned with interference effects in memory between tones of similar pitch. Studies of long-term verbal memory have repeatedly demonstrated similaritybased interference. However, the existence of such effects in short-term verbal memory has been the subject of considerable controversy (Brown, 1958; Conrad, 1964; Wickelgren, 1965). It has been shown that short-term recognition memory for tonal pitch is subject to interference produced specifically by the interpolation of tones in the retention interval and not by the interpolation of numbers presented acoustically at equal loudness (Detitsch, 1970). Since tones are more similar acoustically to each other than they are to spoken numbers, this finding demonstrates a general effect of similarity. A more specific effect has also been found in a study in which pitch recognition was required after an interval during which other tones were played (Deutsch, 1972a). The standard (S) and

Proactive effects in short-term recognition memory.

Proactive effects in short-term recognition memory.

Age and task effects in short-term memory of children

Children of 4, 8, and 14 years performed a visual memory task with easy- or hard-to-label displays and with or without repetition of stimuli over trials. Eight pictures were displayed in serial order, and the task was to find the card in the array that matched an identical probe card. Performance improved with age, and strong serial position effects were obtained for all ages and tasks. In contrast to previous studies, primacy effects were obtained for the youngest children tested. Task difficulty increased with difficulty of labeling and with repetition, but order of task difficulty remained the same for all ages. The d’ measure, borrowed from signal detection theory, revealed differences in criterion levels over serial position, which in earlier studies had been confounded with strength of memory.

Four-channel effects in short-term memory

A four-channel task was studied in two experiments. Following simultaneous presentation of four words, two auditory and two visual, Ss tried to report the four words and then were probed for the attribute (male or female voice, capital or small type) of one of them. In general, Ss can identify all four words under simultaneous presentation conditions and, usually, identify the attribute as well. Order of report was organized by mode of presentation, even when high associates (e.g., CAT-DOG) were split across mode. These data provide support for the hypothesis of separate short-term auditory and visual stores; they also suggest that these stores are prelinguistic and have persistence of the order of several seconds.

Distinctiveness in short-term memory

Six experiments yielding serial position data using a positional probe task were compared to predictions made on the basis of distinctiveness. The concept of distinctiveness is derived from psychophysical theory and indicates the degree to which a particular stimulus in a group “stands out” from the other stimuli in that group. It was found that the obtained results agreed closely with those predicted. The results were suggested as a possible explanation for the bowed serial position effect in short-term memory.

Interpolation effects in short-term memory

The processing capacity available for rehearsing sequences of 10 random consonants was varied during a 5-sec retention interval. There was a systematic decline in the end peak of the serial-position curve as the information load of the interpolated task was increased; but the first positions were disrupted by a constant amount, regardless of the difficulty of the interpolated task. The results suggest that all verbal interpolated tasks interfere to an equal extent with the active verbal processes used to maintain the structure of STM and that the difficulty level of an interpolated task is only a determinant of recall for those relatively unprocessed items which have not been incorporated into the STM structure.

Amnesic effects in short-term memory.

Produced the von Restorff effect in a free recall experiment with 68 undergraduates by the interpolation of a photograph of nude human beings at Serial Position 8 in a 15-item list consisting of line drawings of familiar objects. This effect was accompanied by a retrograde amnesia at the 2 serial po

Similarity effects in short-term memory.

Similarity effects in short-term memory.

Repetition effects in short-term memory

Human short-term memory was studied using repeated presentations of the stimulus materials. A consonant trigram was presented, rehearsal was prevented for a 20-sec interval, and the procedure was then repeated without allowing an attempted recall. A single recall test was given after the interval that followed the last presentation. Number of presentations (one, two, three, and four) was the independent variable. Considerable increases in recall were obtained as number of presentations increased.

Intertrial Intervals and Motor Short-Term Memory

Abstract Earlier work which showed no proactive inhibition (PI) effects in motor short-term memory (STM) may have failed to do so because the long intertrial intervals used may have allowed the traces from previous positions to weaken and become ineffective in producing PI. The present investigation determined whether the intertrial interval was a factor in PI. The task involved presentation and recall (after a 10-sec. retention interval) of positions along a trackway, each subject having 10 different positions on each of 10 trials. Intertrial intervals were either 10 or 90 sec. for two groups of 20 subjects. No PI occurred and intertrial intervals was not a variable in PI, which failed to support the view that motor and verbal STM may be similar systems.

A perceptual isolation effect in short-term memory

Perceptually isolating a CCC by enclosing it in a rectangle improved STM for that item. No residual effects of this isolation were found on following nonisolated items. The possibility of accounting for improved STM of items involving conceptual class change in terms of enhancement through isolation, instead of reduction of semantic interference effects of previous items, was discussed.

Absence of specific retroactive interference effects of acoustic similarity in short-term memory

Each of 24 Ss received acoustically similar or different pairs of tetragrams separated by 2.5 or 18 sec of interpolated activity. Level of recall for the first tetragram after an interval of 20.5 sec was not significantly affected by the acoustic similarity of the second tetragram or the time elapsing between the tetragrams. A significant interaction was found, however, between these factors. Simultaneous presentation of tetragram consonants as opposed to sequential presentation appeared to underlie the absence of specific retroactive interference effects and the obtained interaction. The data question the generality of acoustic similarity effects in short-term memory.

An analysis of recall effects in short-term memory

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which recall measures of short-term retention vary with the number of items for which recall is required. The S s looked at arrays containing from eight to 20 consonants, and were subsequently asked to recall one, four, or all of the items. Accuracy of recall was a function of both the number of items presented and the number of items requested in recall, but the effects of the two variables did not interact, the decrement in accuracy per item recalled being constant and independent of the number of items presented. It follows that although scores of total recall are inaccurate as measures of absolute retention, they are not necessarily less precise or reliable than partial recall scores.

Primacy effect in short-term memory in young children

Subjects, between the ages of 4 and 7 years, took part in a study of short-term memory. The material was a series of pic ture cards. The pattern of results for Ss over 5 years approximated that typically found with adults. Among the younger children it appeared initially that no primacy effect was present. However, when allowance was made for position preference, some evidence of a primacy effect was obtained.