Abstract
The theoretical distinction between an articulatory control process and a short-term phonological store was supported in five experiments on immediate serial recall. In Experiment 1, articulatory suppression during the presentation and recall of auditory material abolished the word length effect but not the phonemic similarity effect. In Experiment 2, the two latter effects were found to be independent with auditory presentation. In Experiment 3, the effects of irrelevant speech and word length were found to be independent with visual presentation. In Experiment 4, articulatory suppression during the presentation and recall of auditory material abolished the phonemic similarity effect with a slow presentation rate. Nevertheless, in Experiment 5, articulatory suppression with a conventional presentation rate did not reduce the effect of phonemic similarity, even when a 10-sec interval was interposed between presentation and recall. These results indicate that the encoding, maintenance, and retrieval of spoken material within the phonological store do not depend on a process of articulatory rehearsal.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baddeley, A. D. (1968). How does acoustic similarity influence short-term memory?Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,20, 249–264.
Baddeley, A. D. (1976).The psychology of memory. New York: Basic Books.
Baddeley, A. D. (1979). Working memory and reading. In P. A. Kolers, M. E. Wrolstad, & H. Bouma (Eds.),Processing of visible language (Vol. 1, pp. 355–370). New York: Plenum.
Baddeley, A. D. (1986).Working memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Baddeley, A. D. (1990).Human memory: Theory and practice. Hove: Erlbaum.
Baddeley, A. D., &Hitch, G. J. (1974). Working memory. In G. H. Bower (Ed.),The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 8, pp. 47–89). New York: Academic Press.
Baddeley, A., &Lewis, V. (1984). When does rapid presentation enhance digit span?Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society,22, 403–405.
Baddeley, A. D., Lewis, V. J., &Vallar, G. (1984). Exploring the articulatory loop.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,36A, 233–252.
Baddeley, A. D., Thomson, N., &Buchanan, M. (1975). Word length and the structure of short-term memory.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,14, 575–589.
Baddeley, A. D., &Wilson, B. (1985). Phonological coding and short-term memory in patients without speech.Journal of Memory & Language,24, 490–502.
Bishop, D. V. M., &Robson, J. (1989). Unimpaired short-term memory and rhyme judgement in congenitally speechless individuals: Implications for the notion of “articulatory coding.”Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,41A, 123–140.
Colle, H. A. (1980). Auditory encoding in visual short-term recall: Effects ofnoise intensity and spatial location.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,19, 722–735.
Colle, H. A., &Welsh, A. (1976). Acoustic masking in primary memory.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,15, 17–32.
Conrad, R. (1967). Interference or decay over short retention intervals?Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,6, 49–54.
Conrad, R. (1972). Speech and reading. In J. F. Kavanagh & I. G. Mattingly (Eds.),Language by ear and by eye: The relationships between speech and reading (pp. 205–240). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Cowan, N. (1984). On short and long auditory stores.Psychological Bulletin,96, 341–370.
Cowan, N., Day, L., Saults, J. S., Keller, T. A., Johnson, T., &Flores, L. (1992). The role of verbal output time in the effects of word length on immediate memory.Journal of Memory & Language,31, 1–17.
Crowder, R. G. (1969). Improved recall for digits with delayed recall cues.Journal of Experimental Psychology,82, 258–262.
Frankish, C., &Turner, J. (1984). Delayed suffix effect at very short delays.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,10, 767–777.
Garner, W. R., Hake, H. W., &Eriksen, C. W. (1956). Opera-tionism and the concept of perception.Psychological Review,63, 149–159.
Gregg, V. H., Freedman, C. M., &Smith, D. K. (1989). Word frequency, articulatory suppression and memory span.British Journal of Psychology,80, 363–374.
Hanley, J. R., &Broadbent, C. (1987). The effect of unattended speech on serial recall following auditory presentation.British Journal of Psychology,78, 287–297.
Hitch, G. J. (1980). Developing the concept of working memory. In G. Claxton (Ed.),Cognitivepsychology: New directions (pp. 154–196). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Hulme, C., Maughan, S., &Brown, G. D. A. (1991). Memory for familiar and unfamiliar words: Evidence for a long-term memory contribution to short-term memory span.Journal of Memory & Language,30, 685–701.
Hulme, C., &Tordoff, V. (1989). Working memory development: The effects of speech rate, word length, and acoustic similarity on serial recall.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology,47, 72–87.
Jones, D. M., Macken, W. J., & Murray, A. C. (in press). Disruption of visual short-term memory by changing-state auditory stimuli: The role of segmentation.Memory & Cognition.
Jones, D. M., Madden, C., &Miles, C. (1992). Privileged access by irrelevant speech to short-term memory: The role of changing state.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,44A, 645–669.
Jones, D. M., Miles, C., &Page, J. (1990). Disruption of proofreading by irrelevant speech: Effects of attention, arousal, or memory?Applied Cognitive Psychology,4, 89–108.
Levy, B. A. (1971). Role of articulation in auditory and visual shortterm memory.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,10, 123–132.
Logie, R., Cubelli, R., Della Sala, S., Alberoni, M., &Nichelli, P. (1989). Anarthria and verbal short-term memory. In J. R. Crawford & D. M. Parker (Eds.),Developments in clinical and experimental neuropsychology (pp. 203–211). New York: Plenum.
Miles, C., Jones, D. M., &Madden, C. A. (1991). Locus of the irrelevant speech effect in short-term memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,17, 578–584.
Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information.Psychological Review,63, 81–97.
Morris, N., Jones, D. M., &Quayle, A. J. (1989). In E. Megaw (Ed.),Contemporary ergonomics (pp. 494–499). London: Taylor & Francis.
Morris, R. G. (1984). Dementia and the functioning of the articulatory loop system.Cognitive Neuropsychology,1, 143–157.
Morton, J., Crowder, R. G., &Prussin, H. A. (1971). Experiments with the stimulus suffix effect.Journal of Experimental Psychology Monographs,91, 169–190.
Murray, D. J. (1967). The role of speech responses in short-term memory.Canadian Journal of Psychology,21, 263–276.
Murray, D. J. (1968). Articulation and acoustic confusability in shortterm memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology,78, 679–684.
Nairne, J. S. (1988). A framework for interpreting recency effects in immediate serial recall.Memory & Cognition,16, 343–352.
Peterson, L. R., &Johnson, S. F. (1971). Some effects of minimizing articulation on short-term retention.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,10, 346–354.
Posner, M. I., &Konick, A. F. (1966). On the role of interference in short-term retention.Journal of Experimental Psychology,72, 221–231.
Richardson, J. T. E. (1979). Precategorical acoustic storage and post-categorical lexical storage.Cognitive Psychology,11, 265–286.
Richardson, J. T. E. (1984). Developing the theory of workingmemory.Memory & Cognition,12, 71–83.
Richardson, J. T. E., Greaves, D. E., &Smith, M. M. C. (1980). Does articulatory suppression eliminate the phonemic similarity effect in short-term recall?Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society,16, 417–420.
Roediger, H. L., &Crowder, R. G. (1976). Recall instructions and the suffix effect.American Journal of Psychology,89, 115–125.
Salamé, P., &Baddeley, A. (1982). Disruption of short-term memory by unattended speech: Implications for the structure of working memory.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,21, 150–164.
Salamé, P., &Baddeley, A. (1983). Differential effects of noise and speech on short-term memory. In G. Rossi (Ed.),Proceedings of the 4th International Congress on Noise as a Public Health Problem (Vol. 2, pp. 751–758). Milan: Centro Ricerche e Studi Amplifon.
Salamé, P., &Baddeley, A. (1986). Phonological factors in STM: Similarity and the unattended speech effect.Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society,24, 263–265.
Salamé, P., &Baddeley, A. (1987). Noise, unattended speech and short-term memory.Ergonomics,30, 1185–1194.
Salame, P., &Baddeley, A. (1989). Effects of back groundmusic on phonological short-term memory.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,41A, 107–122.
Schweickert, R., Guentert, L., &Hersberger, L. (1990). Phonological similarity, pronunciation rate, and memory span.Psychological Science,1, 74–77.
Vallar, G., &Baddeley, A. D. (1984). Fractionation of working memory: Neuropsychological evidence for a phonological short-term store.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,23, 151–161.
Vallar, G., &Cappa, S. F. (1987). Articulation and verbal short-term memory: Evidence from anarthria.Cognitive Neuropsychology,4, 55–77.
Watkins, O. C., &Watkins, M. J. (1980). The modality effect and echoic persistence.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,109, 251–278.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
The authors’ collaboration was made possible by travel grants under an agreement between the Royal Society and the Consiglio Nazionale della Ricerche.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Longoni, A.M., Richardson, J.T.E. & Aiello, A. Articulatory rehearsal and phonological storage in working memory. Memory & Cognition 21, 11–22 (1993). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211160
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211160