The extent to which familiar syntax supports short-term serial recall of visually presented six-item sequences was shown by the superior recall of lists in which item pairs appeared in the order of “adjective–noun” (items 1–2, 3–4, 5–6)—congruent with English syntax—compared to when the order of items within pairs was reversed. The findings complement other evidence suggesting that short-term memory is an assemblage of language processing and production processes more than it is a bespoke short-term memory storage system.
BaddeleyA. D. (1986). Working memoryOxford: Oxford University Press.
2.
BaddeleyA. D. (2002). Is working memory still working?.European Psychologist7, 85–97.
3.
BaddeleyA. D. (2007). Working memory, thought and actionOxford: Oxford University Press.
4.
BockJ. K.HuitemaJ. (1999). Language production.Studies in cognition: Language processing. GarrodS.PickeringM.Hove, UK: Psychology Press365–388.
5.
BotvinickM.BylsmaL. M. (2005). Regularization in short-term memory for serial order.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition31, 351–358.
6.
BrenerR. (1940). An experimental investigation of memory span.Journal of Experimental Psychology26, 467–482.
7.
CrowderR. G. (1978). Mechanisms of auditory backward masking in the stimulus suffix effect.Psychological Review85, 502–524.
8.
EllisA. W. (1980). Errors in speech and short-term memory: The effects of phonemic similarity and syllable position.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior19, 624–634.
9.
GuptaP.MacWhinneyB. (1997). Vocabulary acquisition and verbal short-term memory: Computational and neural bases.Brain and Language59, 267–333.
10.
HughesR. W.MarshJ. E.JonesD. M. (2008). Embodying short-term memory: Mapping perception onto action Manuscript submitted for publication.
11.
JefferiesE.Lambon RalphM. A.BaddeleyA. D. (2004). Automatic and controlled processing in sentence recall: The role of long-term and working memory.Journal of Memory and Language51, 623–643.
12.
JonesD. M.HughesR. W.MackenW. J. (2006). Perceptual organization masquerading as phonological storage.Journal of Memory and Language54, 265–281.
13.
MartinN.SaffranE. M. (1997). Language and auditory–verbal short-term memory impairments: Evidence for common underlying processes.Cognitive Neuropsychology14, 641–682.
14.
MartinR.LeschM.BarthaM. (1999). Independence of input and output phonology in short-term memory and word processing.Journal of Memory and Language41, 3–29.
15.
MayznerM. S.SchoenbergK. M. (1964). Single-letter and diagram frequency effects in immediate serial recall.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior3, 397–400.
16.
MillerG. A.SelfridgeJ. A. (1951). Verbal context and the recall of meaningful material.American Journal of Psychology63, 176–185.
17.
NeathI. (2000). Modelling the effects of irrelevant speech on memory.Psychonomic Bulletin and Review7, 403–423.
18.
SalaméP.BaddeleyA. D. (1982). Disruption of short-term memory by unattended speech: Implications for the structure of working memory.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior21, 150–164.
19.
WatkinsM. J. (1977). The intricacy of memory span.Memory and Cognition5, 529–534.
20.
WoodwardA. J.MackenW. J.JonesD. M. (2008). Linguistic familiarity in short-term memory: The role of (co)articulatory fluency.Journal of Memory and Language58, 148–65.
