title: Testing a positional model of the Hebb effect.
abstract: In two experiments, we investigated the hypothesis that a strengthening of position-item associations underlies the improvement seen in performance on an immediate serial recall task, for a list that is surreptitiously repeated every third trial. Having established a strong effect of repetition, performance was tested on transfer lists in which half the items held the same position as in the repeated list (S-items) and the remainder moved (D-items). In Experiment 1, S-items showed a small advantage in order errors over control and D-items. A second experiment tested whether a design feature in Experiment 1 underlay this advantage. When the experimental design was better controlled, no improvement was shown for either S- or D-items over controls. These data were shown to be inconsistent with the results of computer simulations of a positional model. An alternative model is outlined.
authors.affiliation: MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK. nick.cumming@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cumming
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Page
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Norris
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011581:Psychological Tests