Rote Rehearsal Research Articles

Visuo-spatial processing in working memory.

This paper reports four experiments designed to develop a simple technique for the study of visuo-spatial processing within the working memory framework (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974). Experiment 1 involved the matching of successively presented random matrix patterns, as a secondary visual suppression task. This was coupled with rote rehearsal or a visual imagery mnemonic for learning lists of concrete words presented auditorily. Although memory performance with matching dropped overall, the visual mnemonic was differentially affected. Experiment 2 removed the matching decision, with visual presentation of unattended patterns. There was no overall effect of the unattended material, but use of the visual mnemonic was significantly affected. Experiment 3 replicated this result with simpler plain coloured squares as the unattended material. In Experiment 4, for one group, the unattended material consisted of line drawings of common objects. For a second group, the lists of words for recall were presented visually, with or without unattended speech. The results suggested that unattended pictures disrupt use of a visual mnemonic, while unattended speech disrupts rote rehearsal. These results suggest that unattended visual material has privileged access to the mechanism(s) involved in short-term visuo-spatial processing and storage. They also suggest that use of a concurrent visual matching task or of unattended visual material may provide tractable techniques for investigating this aspect of cognitive function within the context of working memory.

P300 and recall in an incidental memory paradigm.

ABSTRACTIn previous research Karis, Fabiani, and Donchin (1984) found a relationship between the amplitude of the P300s elicited by words and subsequent recall performance. Words later recalled elicited larger P300s than words later not recalled. However, this relationship was dependent on the mnemonic strategies used by the subjects. There was a strong relationship between P300 amplitude and recall when rote rehearsal strategies were used, but when subjects used elaborative strategies the relationship between P300 amplitude and recall was not evident. In the present experiment we employed an incidental memory paradigm to reduce the use of rehearsal strategies. An “oddball’ task consisting of a series of names was presented, and subjects were required to count either the male or the female names. Event‐related brain potentials were recorded to the presentation of each name. Following the oddball task, subjects were asked, unexpectedly, to recall as many names as possible. The names that were recalled had elicited, on their initial presentation, larger P300s than names not recalled. Thus, these results confirm our hypothesis: when elaborative rehearsal strategies are not used, the relationship between P300 and memory emerges more consistently. Our data provide support for a “context updating’ hypothesis of the functional significance of the P300.

Noise Effects on Rehearsal Rate in Short Term Serial Order Memory

Three experiments are reported which were designed to test the hypothesis that the rate of rehearsal during noise is slower than that under quiet conditions. The first experiment measured directly the rate of articulation while subjects either read or rehearsed a set of five consonants. It was shown that while the rate of articulation when reading aloud did not differ under the two noise levels [65 dB(C) and 85 dB(C)], rate of articulation during overt rehearsal in loud noise was significantly slower than under quiet conditions. In Experiment II a similar effect was demonstrated where words were required to be read or rehearsed; here it was shown that the greatest impairment due to noise was on the rate of rehearsal of words of long spoken length. The third experiment showed that loud noise impaired recall performance more markedly for a set of words of long spoken length presented early on in the sequence than for a set of shorter words, even though both sets were equal in the number of syllables and phonemes they contained. It was concluded that in verbal memory tasks where rote rehearsal of the to-be-remembered material is the predominant strategy for enhancing trace duration, noise may affect memory performance by slowing down the rehearsal rate.

Associative processing during rote rehearsal.

Associative processing during rote rehearsal.

Associative processing during rote rehearsal.

Associative processing during rote rehearsal.

Effects of an imagery mnemonic on second language recall and comprehension.

University students with some educational background in French as a second language used an imagery-based hook mnemonic and rote rehearsal to learn different sets of French words. The hook technique involved associating the new items with an overlearned series of French stimulus words and images, which could be retrieved during recall using a number code. The rote condition involved the technique without imagery. The recall items, which were presented along with their translation equivalents on the study trial, varied in familiarity and concreteness. Recall following one study trial was approximately three times higher for words learned by imagery than by rote. This effect was only slightly qualified by familiarity and concreteness, which also affected recall. Translation tests given before and (unexpectedly) one day after the recall experiment showed that correct translations of relatively unfamiliar items increased about twice as much after study by imagery than after rote study. Thus imagery simultaneously facilitated both recall and comprehension. The practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

The facilitative role of imagery in episodic memory: Multiple cues or active construction?

The purpose of this experiment was to compare free recall for pictorial and for image-mediated verbal stimuli. Five independent groups were tested. One received a set of 30 noun-verb-noun sentences and instructions for rote rehearsal; one received the same 30 trigrams and instructions to construct visual images; a third was asked simply to look at drawings portraying incidents suggested by the trigrams; the fourth group received Items 1-15 in the form of trigrams and Items 16-30 as pictures to be passively observed; for the fifth group, the trigram-picture sequence was reversed. Stimuli were presented only once. Presentation was followed by a 5-min distraction task, and then all subjects were asked to write down as many as they could remember of the names of the objects of the events depicted by the pictures and sentences (the third word in each trigram). There is some indication in the results that even passively observed pictures were recalled better–if only slightly better–than image-mediated words. This suggests that the multiple cues available in pictures are a better aid to recall than the processes of controlled imagery. However, a more important implication, drawn from the performance of the fourth group, is that a better approach to facilitating recall is to combine the advantages of each into a single strategy and to elaborate images from pictorial stimuli.

Awareness and the Effect of Rote Rehearsal on Free Recall

The effect of time of awareness of a subsequent test of recall and the relationship of that awareness and rote rehearsal were studied by telling subjects which specific items to encode before the item's presentation (prior instructions) or after its rehearsal (postrehearsal instructions) and by varying rehearsal intervals for individual items. Rehearsal interval had little effect on recall, and only the prior instructions facilitated recall. This facilitation was at the same level at all rehearsal intervals, indicating that instructions affect an item's encoding only during its presentation and independent of rote rehearsal.

Developmental changes in apportionment of study time among items in a multitrial free recall task

First grade, third grade, and college Ss attempted to memorize a single set of items over the course of 5 trials, each trial consisting of a 45-sec study period followed by a free recall test. On all trials but the first, S was allowed to have available during his study period only half of the total set of items, but was free to select whichever items he wished to include in this half. Third grade and college Ss were significantly more prone than first grade Ss to select for study items not recalled in the immediately preceding recall test. The results suggest that the strategy of deliberately concentrating one's study activities on the less well mastered segments of materials to be learned, like other elementary memory strategies (e.g., rote rehearsal), cannot automatically be assumed to be part of a young child's repertoire of learning techniques.

Effects of Different Mediational Instructions and Sex of Subject on Paired-Associate Learning of Concrete Nouns

The present investigation compared the relative effectiveness of four differing instructional sets on the paired-associate acquisition of concrete nouns. Possible sex differences were also examined. The instructional sets included standard paired-associate instructions (Minimal instructions), Rote Rehearsal, Verbal Mediation (requiring that S use a sentence or phrase containing both members of a given pair) and Visual Imagery Mediation (requiring that S create an imagined scene depicting both objects which the words of the pair represented). Consistent with previous findings, acquisition was greatly facilitated under Visual Imagery Mediation. Discrepant with past findings, however, performance under Verbal Mediation, although slightly superior to performance under the standard and rehearsal sets, was significantly inferior to performance under imagery instructions. Sex of S was not significantly related to performance.