title: Recalling visual serial order for verbal sequences.
abstract: We report three experiments in which participants performed written serial recall of visually presented verbal sequences with items varying in visual similarity. In Experiments 1 and 2 native speakers of Japanese recalled visually presented Japanese Kanji characters. In Experiment 3, native speakers of English recalled visually presented words. In all experiments, items varied in visual similarity and were controlled for phonological similarity. For Kanji and for English, performance on lists comprising visually similar items was overall poorer than for lists of visually distinct items across all serial positions. For mixed lists in which visually similar and visually distinct items alternated through the list, a clear "zig-zag" pattern appeared with better recall of the visually distinct items than for visually similar items. This is the first time that this zig-zag pattern has been shown for manipulations of visual similarity in serial-ordered recall. These data provide new evidence that retaining a sequence of visual codes relies on similar principles to those that govern the retention of a sequence of phonological codes. We further illustrate this by demonstrating that the data patterns can be readily simulated by at least one computational model of serial-ordered recall, the Primacy model (Page and Norris, Psychological Review, 105(4), 761-81, 1998). Together with previous evidence from neuropsychological studies and experimental studies with healthy adults, these results are interpreted as consistent with two domain-specific, limited-capacity, temporary memory systems for phonological material and for visual material, respectively, each of which uses similar processes that have evolved to be optimal for retention of serial order.
authors.affiliation: Human Cognitive Neuroscience, Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh, EH16 6JF, UK. rlogie@staffmail.ed.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Robert H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Logie
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive Psychology in Education, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Satoru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan.
authors.forename: Aiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Morita
authors.affiliation: Human Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
authors.forename: Samarth
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Varma
authors.affiliation: MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Norris
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011932:Reading; D012691:Serial Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Serial position effects; Short-term memory; Visual similarity; Working memory