Work

Think before you speak: Pauses, memory search, and trace redintegration processes in verbal memory span.

Year: 1999

Type: article

Abstract: Immediate memory span and speed of memory search were assessed for words and nonwords of short and long spoken duration. Memory span was substantially greater for words than for nonwords and for short than for long items, though speed of memory search was unaffected by either length or lexicality. An analysis of the temporal pattern of responses in the memory span task indicated that inter-item pauses were longer between nonwords than words but that these pause durations were unaffected by item length. A model of verbal short-term memory span is described in which trace selection from a short-term store and the redintegration (restoration) of degraded phonological traces both occur in the pauses between saying successive items. Both trace selection and trace redintegration appear to play important roles in accounting for individual differences in memory span.

Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition

DOI: 10.1037//0278-7393.25.2.447

Authors: Charles Hulme, Philip Newton, Nelson Cowan, George Stuart, Gordon Brown

Institutions: University of York, University of Missouri, University of Warwick

Language: English

Topic: Memory Processes and Influences

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Awards: G5786451197, Mechanisms of Working Memory Capacity Limits and Their Development