How do subvocal rehearsal and general attentional resources contribute to verbal short-term memory span?

Frontiers in Psychology
Sergio Morra

Abstract

Whether rehearsal has a causal role in verbal STM has been controversial in the literature. Recent theories of working memory emphasize a role of attentional resources, but leave unclear how they contribute to verbal STM. Two experiments (with 49 and 102 adult participants, respectively) followed up previous studies with children, aiming to clarify the contributions of attentional capacity and rehearsal to verbal STM. Word length and presentation modality were manipulated. Experiment 1 focused on order errors, Experiment 2 on predicting individual differences in span from attentional capacity and articulation rate. Structural equation modeling showed clearly a major role of attentional capacity as a predictor of verbal STM span; but was inconclusive on whether rehearsal efficiency is an additional cause or a consequence of verbal STM. The effects of word length and modality on STM were replicated; a significant interaction was also found, showing a larger modality effect for long than short words, which replicates a previous finding on children. Item errors occurred more often with long words and correlated negatively with articulation rate. This set of findings seems to point to a role of rehearsal in maintaining item informat...Continue Reading

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Citations

Aug 19, 2015·Frontiers in Psychology·Sergio Morra, Erika Borella
Dec 22, 2015·Experimental Psychology·Sergio Morra, Valentina Epidendio
Oct 12, 2017·Memory & Cognition·Dominic GuitardAnne Tolan
Jul 10, 2021·Frontiers in Psychology·Francesco BensoSimone Gazzellini

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