Abstract
Short-term recognition memory was tested by presenting six letters, one after the other, followed by a target letter and having S indicate whether or not the target matched one of the six letters. Recognition memory for a letter was better when it was embedded in a six-letter word, rather than a nonword, and when it was included in a sequence presented left-to-right, rather than right-to-left (Experiment 1). Reducing the presentation rate from 4/sec to 2.5/sec largely eliminated the left-to-right effect (Experiment 2). The effect of direction of presentation was greater for redundant (Experiment 1) than for nonredundant sequences (Experiment 3) and was greater for Ss who more frequently formed a word out of the sequence (Experiments 1 and 2), but was no greater for words than nonwords (Experiments 1 and 2) and no greater for letter than for line-figure sequences (Experiment 3). These findings suggest that the left-to-right effect depends as much, or more, on “peripheral” processes (e.g., eye movements) as on “central” processes (e.g., reading).
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This study was supported by a predoctoral traineeship from the United States Public Health Service, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Grant 5 T01 GM 01011-07, to Harvard University. The author is grateful to Doris Aaronson, Nancy C. Waugh, and Phillip Liss for their very helpful comments and suggestions.
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Krueger, L.E. Effect of direction of sequential presentation and redundancy on short-term recognition memory. Perception & Psychophysics 9, 121–124 (1971). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213044
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213044