Single-probe serial position recall: evidence of modularity for olfactory, visual, and auditory short-term memory

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP
Andrew J Johnson, Christopher Miles

Abstract

The present study examined and compared order memory for a list of sequentially presented odours, unfamiliar faces, and pure tones. Employing single-probe serial position recall and following a correction for a response bias, qualitatively different serial position functions were observed across stimuli. Participants demonstrated an ability to perform absolute order memory judgments for odours. Furthermore, odours produced an absence of serial position effects, unfamiliar faces produced both primacy and recency, and pure tones produced recency but not primacy. Such a finding is contrary to the proposal by Ward, Avons, and Melling (2005) that the serial position function is task, rather than modality, dependent. In contrast, the observed functions support a modular conceptualization of short-term memory (e.g., Andrade & Donaldson, 2007; Baddeley & Hitch, 1974), whereby separate modality-specific memorial systems operate. An alternative amodal interpretation is also discussed wherein serial position function disparities are accommodated via differences in the psychological distinctiveness of stimuli (Hay, Smyth, Hitch, & Horton, 2007).

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Jul 20, 2007·Psychological Review·Gordon D A BrownNick Chater
Sep 14, 2007·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP·Andrew J Johnson, Christopher Miles

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Citations

Oct 19, 2012·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP·Andrew J JohnsonChristopher Miles
Dec 25, 2012·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP·Richard J Stevenson, Mehmet K Mahmut
Mar 4, 2011·Memory & Cognition·Fredrik U JönssonMats J Olsson
May 21, 2013·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP·Simon Farrell, Klaus Oberauer
Aug 29, 2017·Memory·Andrew MossAndrew Johnson
Feb 7, 2019·Frontiers in Psychology·Andrew J Johnson, Christopher Miles

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