EFFECTS OF ARTICULATORY ACTIVITY AND AUDITORY , VISUAL AND SEMANTIC SIMILARITY ON SHORT-TERM MEMORY OF VISUALLY PRESENTED PAIRED ASSOCIATES

Auditory similarity among stimuli significantly increased errors in short-term memory (STM) of visually presented paired associates, while visual and semantic similarity did not. Ss were 144 male undergraduates. Reading the pairs aloud at presentation facilitated STM, but there were no differences between conditions in which the pairs were silently read and in which tongue and lip movements were restricted. Both primacy and recency effects were found in the silent reading and restricted movement condition, but only primacy effects were found in the aloud condition. Results were interpreted as being consistent with an auditory trace rather than a motor feedback hypothesis of STM. (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.