Abstract
Immediate memory was tested for sequences of 7, 8, 9, or 10 auditorily presented letters which comprised either words or zero-, first-, second-, or third-order approximations to English words. At all lengths, recall probability correlated highly with letter sequence predictability (.58–.78) but was unrelated to acoustic confusability. It is suggested that coding was still phonemic but involved speech sounds comprising several letters rather than letter names.
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This study was performed while the author was at the Medical Research Council Applied Psychology Unit Cambridge, and the report written while visiting the Center for Human Information Processing, University of California, San Diego. I am grateful to Mrs. P. Altham and Mrs. A. J. Hull for assistance with data analysis and to the Medical Research Council and to the National Institute of Mental Health, Grant MH 15828, for financial support.
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Baddeley, A.D. Language habits, acoustic confusability, and immediate memory for redundant letter sequences. Psychon Sci 22, 120–121 (1971). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03332525
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03332525