Cortis, Cathleen and Dent, Kevin and Kennett, Steffan and Ward, Geoff (2015) First things first: Similar list length and output order effects for verbal and nonverbal stimuli. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41 (4). pp. 1179-1214. DOI https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000086
Cortis, Cathleen and Dent, Kevin and Kennett, Steffan and Ward, Geoff (2015) First things first: Similar list length and output order effects for verbal and nonverbal stimuli. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41 (4). pp. 1179-1214. DOI https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000086
Cortis, Cathleen and Dent, Kevin and Kennett, Steffan and Ward, Geoff (2015) First things first: Similar list length and output order effects for verbal and nonverbal stimuli. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41 (4). pp. 1179-1214. DOI https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000086
Abstract
When participants are presented with a short list of unrelated words and they are instructed that they may recall in any order, they nevertheless show a very strong tendency to recall in forward serial order. Thus, if asked to recall in any order: "hat, mouse, tea, stairs," participants often respond "hat, mouse, tea, stairs" even though there was no forward order requirement of the task. In 4 experiments, we examined whether this tendency is language-specific, reflecting mechanisms involved with speech perception, speech production, and/or verbal short-term memory. Specifically, we examined whether we would observe similar findings when participants were asked to recall, in any order, lists of between 1 and 15 nonverbal stimuli, such as visuospatial locations (Experiment 1, Experiment 3, Experiment 4), or touched facial locations (Experiment 2). Contrary to a language-specific explanation, we found corresponding tendencies (albeit somewhat reduced) in the immediate free recall of these nonverbal stimuli. We conclude that the tendency to initiate recall of a short sequence of items with the first item is a general property of memory, which may be augmented by verbal coding.
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | free recall; visuospatial memory; tactile memory; verbal STM; serial order |
Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology |
Divisions: | Faculty of Science and Health Faculty of Science and Health > Psychology, Department of |
SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Date Deposited: | 04 Feb 2015 11:59 |
Last Modified: | 07 Aug 2024 19:46 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/12583 |
Available files
Filename: Cortis Dent Kennett Ward.pdf