Serial Recall Research Articles

The morning after the night before: Alcohol-induced blackouts impair next day recall in sober young adults.

Binge-drinking in adolescents and young adults is a widespread problem, however, an often unreported consequence of binge-drinking behaviour is an alcohol-induced memory blackout (MBO). An MBO is a transient amnesic event resulting from rapid, excessive alcohol consumption. Here, we examine the short-term impact of an alcohol-induced MBO event (testing < 20 hours after blackout) on memory performance in people who have experienced a high volume of MBOs. In addition, we aimed to test the hypothesis that people who experience a high volume of MBOs may have poorer recall than non-blackout controls in either sober or intoxicated states. Three episodic memory paradigms consisting of free recall, serial recall, and depth of encoding tasks, were conducted by a group of alcohol drinkers who had never experienced a memory blackout, and those who reported at least 9 in the preceding 12-months. Studies were completed sober and after alcohol by all participants, and sober but after blackout by the experimental group. Accuracy of recall was assessed with linear mixed effects modelling for all experiments and conditions. Recall rate both before and after alcohol consumption was similar between groups, with poorer recall after drinking alcohol by all participants in all three studies. After blackout, MBO participants showed no significant improvement from their intoxicated state in serial recall and depth of encoding tasks, but an improvement in free recall. Further analysis of these findings revealed that 10 out of 23 participants showed significantly impaired performance after blackout during free recall, extending up to 17 participants in serial recall. In general, alcohol reduced recall rate in both blackout and control participants similarly, but recall following MBO remained poor. Our evidence suggests that alcohol-induced blackouts impair memory functioning the next day, and future research should establish the duration of deficits after an acute alcohol-induced blackout episode.

Working memory and handwriting and share a common resource: An investigation of shared attention

Working memory and writing share a common resource. The authors investigated whether increasing the complexity of a finger-tapping task while simultaneously performing a serial verbal recall task while writing would decrease performance for recall, writing fluency, and tapping speed. Participants completed three verbal serial recall tasks which incrementally increased attentional load. Participants recalled word lists after listening to words while, (1) producing pseudo-handwriting movements without finger tapping (no-tapping), (2) producing pseudo-handwriting movements while tapping with a single finger (single-tapping), (3) producing pseudo-handwriting movements while tapping with two fingers (double tapping). The results showed that the double tapping condition caused a decrease in performance for recall, handwriting fluency, and tapping speed compared to the no-tapping condition and the single tapping conditions. However, no differences occurred between the no-tapping condition and the single tapping conditions. The authors concluded that by incrementally increasing the complexity of a concurrent tapping task we can achieve a decrease in performance across multiple cognitive processes. The results provided support for a central pool of shared resources that are utilised by non-working memory tasks and those reliant on working memory. The observed decreases in cognitive performance were dependent on task complexity rather than just performing a secondary task. The findings have implications for how multi-tasking while taking notes is detrimental for memory retention and handwriting fluency.

Bootstrapping the visuospatial bootstrapping effect and testing its spatialisation

ABSTRACT When sequences of digits are visually presented within a numerical keypad on a screen, memory span increases, this effect was named visuospatial bootstrapping. The aim of the first experiment was to know if this effect could emerge without presenting a keypad on the screen. For this purpose, a three-phase experiment was designed. During phase 1, the immediate serial recall of two groups of participants was compared (pre-training): the first group saw sequences of one-digit numbers displayed on a screen within a keypad (the keypad group) whereas the second group heard the (same) sequences (the auditive group). During phase 2, all participants underwent a training session to help them visualise in their mind a keypad. Finally, in the third phase, participants were tested again with an immediate serial recall task (post-training). Results showed that both groups had comparable performance in post-training indicating that the visuospatial bootstrapping could be obtained without displaying a numerical keypad. The second experiment also involved a keypad group and an auditive group and was designed to investigate their spatial representation. Results showed that both groups spatialised the digits following the keypad spatial configuration: digits 1-4-7 were associated to left, 2-5-8 to middle and 3-6-9 to right.

Sex differences in verbal working memory: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

The present meta-analysis aimed to quantify sex differences in verbal working memory and to examine potential moderators of these differences. We examined 802 effect sizes from 478 samples in 284 studies in a multilevel meta-analysis. Results revealed a small overall female advantage (g = .028, 95% CI [.006, .050]). In the overall sample, results showed that sex differences differed across tasks. Specifically, the female advantage was significant for cued tasks (g = .079, 95% CI [.030, .128]) and Free Recall tasks (g = .145, 95% CI [.102, .188]) whereas there was a male advantage on Complex Span (g = -.042, 95% CI [-.083, -.002]), and no sex differences on Serial Recall (g = .003, 95% CI [-.055, .050]), and Simple Span tasks (g < .001, 95% CI [-.034, .033]). Within each task, we found that recall direction, stimulus type, presentation format, response format, and age accounted for significant variance in at least 1 of the tasks. Analyses provided no evidence of a publication bias, although the female advantage varied as a function of sample source, whether the title made reference to sex, and whether authors had to be contacted to obtain relevant data. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for sex differences in episodic memory and in the context of clinical applications and theory building. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Simple spans underestimate verbal working memory capacity.

Verbal working memory (WM) has been assumed to involve 2 different systems of maintenance, a phonological loop and a central attentional system. Though the capacity estimate for letters of each of these systems is about 4, the maximum number of letters that individuals are able to immediately recall, a measure known as simple span, is not about 8 but 6. We tested the hypothesis that, unaware of the dual structure of their verbal WM, individuals underuse it by trying to verbally rehearse too many items. In order to maximize the use of verbal WM, we designed a new procedure called the maxispan procedure. When performing an immediate serial recall task, participants were invited to cumulatively rehearse a limited number of letters, and to keep rehearsing these letters until the end of the presentation of the list in such a way that the following letters can no longer enter the phonological loop and must be stored in the attentional system. As we expected, in 3 successive experiments, the maxispan procedure resulted in a dramatic increase in spans compared with the traditional simple span procedure, with spans approaching 8 when the to-be-rehearsed letters were presented auditorily and the following letters visually. These results indicate that simple spans, which have been used for more than a century in intelligence tests and are assumed to measure the capacity of short-term memory (STM), actually reflect the complex interplay between different structures and cognitive processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The item/order account of word frequency effects: Evidence from serial order tests

According to the item/order hypothesis, high-frequency words are processed more efficiently and therefore order information can be readily encoded. In contrast, low-frequency words are processed less efficiently and the focus on item-specific processing compromises order information. Most experiments testing this account use free recall, which has led to two problems: First, the role of order information is difficult to evaluate in free recall, and second, the data from free recall show all three possible patterns of results: memory for high-frequency words can be better than, the same as, or worse than that for low-frequency words. A series of experiments tested the item/order hypothesis using tests where the role of order information is less ambiguous. The item/order hypothesis predicts better performance for high- than low-frequency words when pure lists are used in both immediate serial recall (ISR) and serial reconstruction of order (SRO) tests. In contrast, when mixed (alternating) lists are used, it predicts better performance for low- than for high-frequency words with ISR tests, but equivalent performance with SRO tests. The experiments generally confirm these predictions, with the notable exception of a block order effect in SRO tasks: When a block of low-frequency lists preceded a block of high-frequency lists, a high-frequency advantage was observed but when a block of high-frequency lists preceded a block of low-frequency lists, no frequency effect was observed. A final experiment provides evidence that this block order effect is due to metacognitive factors.

Valence does not affect serial recall.

Despite being the prototypical test of short-term/working memory, immediate serial recall is affected by numerous lexical and long-term memory factors. Within this large literature, very few studies have examined whether performance on the task is affected by valence, the extent to which a word is viewed as positive or negative. Whereas the NEVER model (Bowen, Kark, & Kensinger, 2018) makes the general prediction that negative words will be remembered better than positive words, two previous studies using serial recall have reported that positive words are better remembered than negative words. Three experiments reassessed whether valence affects immediate serial recall using stimuli equated on multiple dimensions, including both arousal and dominance. Over the 3 experiments, with 3 different sets of stimuli, we found no differences in either accuracy or various error measures as a function of valence. The data suggest that there is no effect of valence on an immediate serial recall task when potentially confounding dimensions are controlled. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Re-assessing age of acquisition effects in recognition, free recall, and serial recall.

Age of acquisition (AoA) refers to the age at which a person learns a word. Research has converged on the conclusion that early AoA words are processed more efficiently than late AoA words on a number of perceptual and reading tasks. However, only a few studies have investigated whether AoA affects memory on recognition, serial recall, and free recall tests, and the results are equivocal. We took advantage of the recent increase in the number of high-quality norms and databases to construct a pool of early and late AoA words that were equated on numerous other dimensions. There was a late AoA advantage in recognition using both pure (Experiment 1) and mixed (Experiment 2) lists, no effect of AoA on serial recall of either pure (Experiment 3) or mixed (Experiment 4) lists, and no effect of AoA on free recall of either pure (Experiment 5) or mixed lists (Experiment 6). We conclude that AoA does reliably affect memory on some memory tasks (recognition), but not others (serial recall, free recall), and that no current account of AoA can explain the findings.

Learning phonotactic-like regularities in immediate serial recall.

Learning a spoken language requires learning a phonological inventory and phonotactics, or the sequences of phonemes possible in the language. Laboratory investigations of phonotactic learning include tongue-twister studies that show that speech errors respect artificial phonotactic constraints, for example that /k/ never appears as a syllable onset. The current research investigates whether errors can reveal similar learning in nonlinguistic domains, specifically in immediate serial recall studies. In Experiments 1-3 participants recalled sequences of 6 items, grouped into two 3-item subsequences, in verbal immediate serial recall experiments. Some items were restricted to appear in specific sequence positions while others were unrestricted, as a parallel to the artificial phonotactics learning experiments. As with speech errors, recall errors with restricted items showed sensitivity to the statistical regularities built into the experiment. Similar results are shown for both absolute and probabilistic constraints. However, learning effects were weaker than in the phonological domain, and were less influenced by hierarchical structure than what is observed in phonotactic learning (Experiment 4). Taken together, these results suggest that there are both domain-general and language-specific constraints on phonotactic learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Serial order in perception, memory, and action.

This article asks whether serial order phenomena in perception, memory, and action are manifestations of a single underlying serial order process. The question is addressed empirically in two experiments that compare performance in whole report tasks that tap perception, serial recall tasks that tap memory, and copy typing tasks that tap action, using the same materials and participants. The data show similar effects across tasks that differ in magnitude, which is consistent with a single process operating under different constraints. The question is addressed theoretically by developing a Context Retrieval and Updating (CRU) theory of serial order, fitting it to the data from the two experiments, and generating predictions for 7 different summary measures of performance: list accuracy, serial position effects, transposition gradients, contiguity effects, error magnitudes, error types, and error ratios. Versions of the model that allowed sensitivity in perception and memory to decrease with serial position fit the data best and produced reasonably accurate predictions for everything but error ratios. Together, the theoretical and empirical results suggest a positive answer to the question: Serial order in perception, memory, and action may be governed by the same underlying mechanism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

How does semantic knowledge impact working memory maintenance? Computational and behavioral investigations

It is now firmly established that long-term memory knowledge, such as semantic knowledge, supports the temporary maintenance of verbal information in Working Memory (WM). This support from semantic knowledge is well-explained by models assuming that verbal items are directly activated in long-term memory, and that this activation provides the representational basis for WM maintenance. However, the exact mechanisms underlying semantic influence on WM performance remain poorly understood. We manipulated the presence of between-item semantic relatedness in an immediate serial recall task, by mixing triplets composed of semantically related and unrelated items (e.g. leaf – tree – branch – wall – beer – dog; hand – father – truck – cloud – sky – rain). Compared to unrelated items, related items were better recalled, as had been classically observed. Critically, semantic relatedness also impacted WM maintenance in a complex manner, as observed by the presence of proactive benefit effects on subsequent unrelated items, and the absence of retroactive effects. The complexity of these interactions is well-captured by TBRS*-S, a decay-based computational architecture in which the activation occurring in long-term memory is described. The present study suggests that semantic knowledge can be used to free up WM resources that can be reallocated for maintenance purposes, and supports models postulating that long-term memory knowledge constrains WM maintenance processes.

Monetary incentives have only limited effects on auditory distraction: evidence for the automaticity of cross-modal attention capture

The duplex-mechanism account of auditory distraction postulates that two distinct forms of auditory distraction can be distinguished by whether or not they can be cognitively controlled. While the interference-by-process component of auditory distraction is postulated to be automatic and independent of cognitive control, the stimulus-aspecific attention capture by auditory deviants and the stimulus-specific attentional diversion by auditorily presented distractor sentences should be suppressed by increased task engagement. Here we test whether incentive-induced changes in task engagement affect the disruption of serial recall by auditory deviants (Experiment 1) and distractor sentences (Experiment 2). Monetary incentives substantially affected recall performance in both experiments. However, the incentive-induced changes in task engagement had only limited effects on auditory distraction. In Experiment 2, increased task engagement was associated with a small decrease of distraction relative to a quiet condition, but strong effects of auditory distraction on performance persisted in conditions of high task engagement in both experiments. Most importantly, and in contrast to the predictions of the duplex-mechanism account, the effects of stimulus-aspecific attention capture (Experiment 1) and stimulus-specific attentional diversion (Experiment 2) remained unaffected by incentive-induced changes in task engagement. These findings are consistent with an automatic-capture account according to which only the processes responsible for the deliberate memorization of the target items are dependent on controlled mental effort while the attention capture by auditory deviants and the attentional diversion by distractor speech are largely automatic.

The influence of the number of part-set cues on order retention.

Across seven experiments, the present article examined the influence of the number of part-set cues on order retention, as assessed by both reconstruction of order and serial recall tests. Historically, part-set cueing facilitation occurs when half of the items are provided as valid part-set cues on tests of order memory. Using a variety of list lengths (10 or 16), numbers of cues (0-14), and types of cues (full or partial), the present experiments showed disparate effects of the number of part-set cues on reconstruction and serial recall tasks. On reconstruction tests, a minimum number of full cues was required before part-set cueing facilitation was produced and the magnitude of facilitation increased as the number of cues increased. Generally, partial cues did not influence order retention until almost the entire list was provided as partial cues. On serial recall tests, part-set cueing facilitation was only evident with a few full cues. In contrast, part-set cueing impairment was the norm when many partial cues were provided. These results were largely consistent with predictions of the retrieval strategy disruption hypothesis, as well as with an anchoring account of part-set cueing for order.

The time course of updating in running span.

Running span can be performed by either passively listening to memory items or actively updating the target set. Previous research suggests that the active updating process is demanding and time consuming and is favored at slow rates of presentation while the passive strategy is employed at fast rates. Two experiments examined the time course of recruitment of resources during task performance and its sensitivity to presentation rate. In Experiment 1, participants performed 1 of 3 serial recall tasks: running span, simple span, and modified span. The tasks were completed at the same time as a choice reaction time (RT; CRT) task and the RTs were used to index the resource demands of the memory task. Running span generated higher RT costs than simple span. The costs were present only for positions at and beyond the point in the sequence when the target memory set was changed, indicating a shift to a more cognitively demanding mode of updating. At these positions there was a generalized increase in RT costs that peaked 1,000 ms following item presentation. In Experiment 2 the resource demands of running span varied with presentation rate and a peak demand at 1,000 ms was again evident, but only with a slow presentation rate. In conjunction with strategy reports, these data establish that the process of active updating in running span is slow and cognitively demanding, making it difficult to use when presentation rates are fast.

Working memory and serial order: Evidence against numerical order codes but for item-position associations.

The processing of ordinally organized information is a characteristic of both serial-order working memory and numerical cognition. Serial positions of items presented within a list follow an ordinal organization when stored in working memory, whereas numbers are based on an ordinal structure stored in long-term memory. We tested the hypothesis that long-term numerical ordinal representations support the coding of temporary serial position information in working memory. In Experiment 1, learned word-number associations appeared to have a negative instead of a positive impact on immediate serial recall performance relative to control conditions. Experiments 2 showed that this effect was due to a stronger opportunity for learning associations of words to serial positions in the control lists as compared to the experimental lists. Experiment 3 showed that when controlling for these positional learning effects, there was no reliable effect of learned word-number associations on immediate serial recall performance. This study indicates that numerical codes do not play a major role in coding serial position information in working tasks. At the same time, the robust item-position learning effects demonstrate a contribution of long-term item-position associations to immediate memory for order. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Following Instructions in Working Memory: Do Older Adults Show the Enactment Advantage?

In young adults, the ability to verbally recall instructions in working memory is enhanced if the sequences are physically enacted by the participant (self-enactment) or the experimenter (demonstration) during encoding. Here we examine the effects of self-enactment and demonstration at encoding on working memory performance in older and younger adults. Fifty young (18-23 years) and 40 older (60-89 years) adults listened to sequences of novel action-object pairs before verbally recalling them in the correct order. There were three different encoding conditions: spoken only, spoken + demonstration, and spoken + self-enactment. We included two different levels of difficulty to investigate whether task complexity moderated the effect of encoding condition and whether this differed between age groups. Relative to the spoken only condition, demonstration significantly improved young and older adults' serial recall performance, but self-enactment only enhanced performance in the young adults, and this boost was smaller than the one gained through demonstration. Our findings suggest that additional spatial-motoric information is beneficial for older adults when the actions are demonstrated to them, but not when the individual must enact the instructions themselves.

The detrimental effect of semantic similarity in short-term memory tasks: A meta-regression approach.

The literature suggests that semantic similarity has a weak or null effect for immediate serial reconstruction and a facilitative effect for immediate serial recall. These observed semantic similarity effects are inconsistent with the assumptions of short-term memory (STM) models on the detrimental effect of similarity (e.g., confusion) and with observations of a robust detrimental effect of phonological similarity. Our review indicates that the experimental results are likely dependent on the manipulation strength for semantic similarity and that manipulations used in previous studies might have affected semantic assvociation as well as semantic similarity. To address these possible issues, two indices are proposed: (a) strength of manipulation on semantic similarity, gained by quantifying semantic similarity based on Osgood and associates' dimensional view of semantics, and (b) inter-item associative strength, a possible confounding factor. Our review and the results of a meta-regression analysis using these two indices suggest that semantic similarity has a detrimental effect on both serial reconstruction and serial recall, while semantic association, which is correlated with semantic similarity, contributes to an apparent facilitative effect. An effect that is not attributable to similarity or association was also implied. Review on item and order memory further suggests the facilitative effect of semantic association on item memory and the detrimental effect of the semantic similarity on order memory. Based on our findings, we propose a unified explanation of observations of semantic similarity effects for both serial reconstruction and serial recall that is in good accord with STM models.

The articulatory determinants of verbal sequence learning.

Two experiments (N = 154 in total) using the Hebb repetition effect-the enhancement of serial recall performance for a repeated sequence in among otherwise nonrepeated sequences-reveal a key role for active articulatory-planning processes in verbal sequence learning, contrary to a prominent, phonological-store based, model (Burgess & Hitch, 2006). First, Hebb sequence learning was attenuated when articulatory planning of the to-be-remembered sequence was restricted by articulatory suppression. This was less the case with auditory sequences, however, suggesting that passive perceptual organization processes operating independently of articulation also contribute to the learning of sequences presented auditorily. Second, sequence learning was enhanced for phonologically similar compared to dissimilar items when that learning was particularly reliant on articulatory planning (i.e., with visual sequences). That this enhanced learning was eliminated when articulatory planning was restricted also points to an articulatory basis for this 'phonological' similarity effect. Third, an inconsistent temporal grouping of items across instances of the repeating sequence also abolished learning but only when that grouping-based on independent evidence from output response-times during serial recall-was instantiated within an articulatory plan. These results are the first to suggest that verbal sequence learning, and not only verbal serial short-term memory (STM) performance, may be explicable by recourse to general-purpose articulatory and perceptual processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The effects of masking sound and signal-to-noise ratio on work performance in Chinese open-plan offices

A laboratory experiment has been carried out in this paper to study the effects of masking sound and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) on occupants’ objective performance and perceived sound environmental quality in Chinese open-plan offices. The serial recall task performance and subject perceptions of 30 participants were tested under 14 different acoustic conditions, including “Quiet” (the condition without neither masking sound nor speech noise), “Speech_only” (the condition without masking sound but with speech noise), and 12 masking sound conditions. In these masking sound conditions, 4 masking sources (speech-like pink noise, air-conditioning noise, spring water sound and babble) were used and each source was given under 3 levels of SNR (i.e., small (−6.6 to −5.5 dB), medium (−3.0 to −2.3 dB) and large (4.4–4.8 dB) levels). The results demonstrate: (1) the effects of masking sound environment on occupants’ objective performance and perceived sound environmental quality (including acoustic satisfaction, perceived disturbance and subjective workload) can significantly differ by masking source and SNR, (2) spring water sound at medium SNR (SNR = −2.4 dB) is the best condition among the tested 12 masking sound environments, and (3) the effects of masking sound on occupants may differ by their individual factors, such as gender, educational level and noise sensitivity. According to the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to study the effects of masking sound and SNR on work performance in Chinese-language open-plan office environments. The findings can be used as a reference for the acoustic research and design of Chinese open-plan offices.

Verbal Working Memory but Not Attention Is Related to Language Proficiency: Evidence from Multilingual Speakers.

Numerous studies have shown a consistent relationship between verbal working memory (WM) and native-language as well as non-native language learning abilities. However, the role of attentional abilities has been rarely explored, although these abilities have been shown to be associated both with verbal working memory and oral language proficiency. This study investigated the association between WM, attention and language proficiency in young adults raised with three different languages (Luxembourgish, German and French). Auditory-verbal WM abilities were assessed via an immediate serial recall task. Attentional abilities were assessed via auditory-verbal and visuo-spatial attentional tasks. Using a Bayesian correlational approach, we observed robust evidence for an association between auditory-verbal WM abilities and non-native language proficiency. At the same time, we observed no reliable evidence in favor of an association between language proficiency and auditory-verbal/visuo-spatial attentional measures. These results suggest that auditory-verbal WM and non-native language proficiency are strongly linked in young multilingual adults, irrespective of auditory-verbal or visuo-spatial attentional abilities.