Jou Jerwen
Department of Psychology and Anthropology, The University of Texas-Pan American, Edinburg 78541-2999, USA.
Am J Psychol. 2003 Winter;116(4):543-79.
In 3 experiments, subjects made comparativejudgments on a set of 2 numbers or letters, 3 numbers or letters, or 5 numbers or letters. Numeric and alphabetic serial order memories were contrasted. Three aspects of serial order memory processes were identified: computational complexity, directionality, and accessibility. Computational complexity is the number of algorithmic steps involved in identifying a target. Directional bias is measured as the speed differences in identifying serial targets of equal computational complexity in a stimulus array. Memory accessibility is measured as the numeric and alphabetic serial position effects. Subjects had a slight directional bias favoring backward ordering for single digits but no bias in 2-digit number ordering, in contrast to a strong forward directional advantage in letter ordering. The speed of number access was found to steadily and evenly decrease along the numeric scale, in contrast to a systematic pattern of variations in alphabet access along the alphabetic scale. Finally, the middle item effect (the middle item in a multi-item array is identified most slowly) found in Jou's (1997) multiple-letter comparison study was generalized to numbers.
在3个实验中，受试者对一组2个数字或字母、3个数字或字母或5个数字或字母进行比较判断。对数字和字母序列顺序记忆进行了对比。确定了序列顺序记忆过程的三个方面：计算复杂性、方向性和可及性。计算复杂性是识别目标所涉及的算法步骤数量。方向偏差通过在刺激阵列中识别具有相同计算复杂性的序列目标时的速度差异来衡量。记忆可及性通过数字和字母序列位置效应来衡量。与字母排序中强烈的向前方向优势相反，受试者对单个数字有轻微的向后排序方向偏差，但在两位数排序中没有偏差。发现数字访问速度沿数字标度稳定且均匀地下降，这与字母访问沿字母标度的系统变化模式形成对比。最后，Jou（1997年）的多字母比较研究中发现的中间项效应（多项目阵列中的中间项识别最慢）被推广到数字。
