Hughes Robert W, Marsh John E
Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London.
School of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2017 Apr;43(4):537-551. doi: 10.1037/xlm0000325. Epub 2016 Sep 26.
A functional, perceptual-motor, account of serial short-term memory (STM) is examined by investigating the way in which an irrelevant spoken sequence interferes with verbal serial recall. Even with visual list-presentation, verbal serial recall is particularly susceptible to disruption by irrelevant spoken stimuli that have the same identity as-but that are order-incongruent with-the to-be-remembered items. We test the view that such interference is because of the obligatory perceptual organization of the spoken stimuli yielding a sequence that competes with a subvocal motor-plan assembled to support the reproduction of the to-be-remembered list. In support of this view, the interference can be eliminated without changing either the identities or objective serial order of the spoken stimuli but merely by promoting a subjective perceptual organization that strips them of their order-incongruent relation to the to-be-remembered list (Experiment 1). The interference is also eliminated if subvocal motor sequence-planning is impeded via articulatory suppression (Experiment 2). The results are in line with the view that performance-limits in verbal serial STM are because of having to exploit perceptual and motor processes for purposes for which they did not evolve, not the inherently limited capacity of structures or mechanisms dedicated to storage. (PsycINFO Database Record
通过研究无关言语序列干扰言语序列回忆的方式，对系列短时记忆（STM）的一种功能性、感知运动性解释进行了考察。即使是在视觉呈现列表的情况下，言语序列回忆也特别容易受到无关言语刺激的干扰，这些刺激与要记忆的项目具有相同的特性，但顺序不一致。我们检验了这样一种观点，即这种干扰是由于言语刺激的强制性感知组织产生了一个与为支持要记忆列表的再现而组装的默读运动计划相竞争的序列。支持这一观点的是，无需改变言语刺激的特性或客观序列顺序，而只需促进一种主观感知组织，消除它们与要记忆列表的顺序不一致关系，就能消除干扰（实验1）。如果通过发音抑制阻碍默读运动序列计划，干扰也会消除（实验2）。结果符合这样一种观点，即言语系列STM中的表现限制是由于必须将感知和运动过程用于它们并非为此而进化的目的，而不是由于专门用于存储的结构或机制的固有容量有限。（PsycINFO数据库记录）
