Multiple roles for time in short-term memory: evidence from serial recall of order and timing.
Three experiments are reported that examine the relationship between short-term memory for time and order information, and the more specific claim that order memory is driven by a timing signal. Participants were presented with digits spaced irregularly in time and postcued (Experiments 1 and 2) or precued (Experiment 3) to recall the order or timing of the digits. The primary results of interest were as follows: (a) Instructing participants to group lists had similar effects on serial and timing recall in inducing a pause in recall between suggested groups; (b) the timing of recall was predicted by the timing of the input lists in both serial recall and timing recall; and (c) when the recall task was precued, there was a tendency for temporally isolated items to be more accurately recalled than temporally crowded items. The results place constraints on models of serial recall that assume a timing signal generates positional representations and suggest an additional role for information about individual durations in short-term memory.
Farrell
Simon
S
Department of Psychology, University of Bristol, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1TU, UK. Simon.Farrell@bristol.ac.uk
D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011932:Reading; D012691:Serial Learning; D013067:Speech Perception; D013998:Time Perception