|
|
Research examining verbal short-term memory (STM) has focused on brief retention of phonological information. Considerably less attention has been paid to short-term storage of semantic representations despite evidence of linguistic long-term memory (LTM) effects such as better word than nonword immediate recall. This study focused on the involvement of phonological and semantic encoding in verbal STM. Participants studied a list of words and judged whether a probe word presented after the list rhymed or was synonymous to any item in the list. We found that semantic encoding was evident in verbal STM, with better recognition for words processed semantically (synonym) than phonologically (rhyme), even at short list lengths. These results support the idea that semantic information from LTM is temporarily activated in verbal STM at first exposure, which suggest an encoding rather than a redintegration effect. It appears that semantic knowledge, in additional to phonological knowledge, influences verbal STM processing in an obligatory manner. Thus, the maintenance of semantic representations should be considered as a fundamental property of verbal STM.
This research was supported by NSERC CDG and SSHRC CGS-M. |
|