Smyth M M, Scholey K A
Department of Psychology, University of Lancaster, U.K.
Q J Exp Psychol A. 1994 Feb;47(1):91-117. doi: 10.1080/14640749408401145.
In studies of verbal short-term memory it has been shown that the length of words to be remembered affects the size of memory span. This word-length effect is attributed to relationships between the rate of rehearsal of verbal material and the time it takes to speak the words being rehearsed. For spatial memory span there may also be an internal rehearsal system linked to overt responding, and if there is a strong analogy to be drawn between the verbal and spatial domains then movement time between spatial targets should predict the number of spatial locations that can be recalled. In the experiments reported here the time taken to move between spatial targets is varied by altering the size of targets and the distance between them. No difference between span performance on a nine-block spatial span task were found, either on immediate recall or on recall after an interval. When recall is of items from an array of 27, grouped in nine sets of three, with only one location in any set being presented on any trial, there is an effect of display size. This effect is consonant with the argument that movement time is related to spatial rehearsal, but other explanations are also possible. However, if recall in this task is scored over the nine sets rather than over the 27 items, then there is no difference between the displays. The results indicate that performance on the normal nine-block spatial-span task cannot be predicted by movement time.
在言语短期记忆研究中，已表明要记忆的单词长度会影响记忆广度的大小。这种单词长度效应归因于言语材料的复述速率与复述单词所需时间之间的关系。对于空间记忆广度，可能也存在一个与明显反应相关的内部复述系统，并且如果在言语和空间领域之间能得出强烈的类比，那么空间目标之间的移动时间应该能预测可回忆的空间位置数量。在本文所报告的实验中，通过改变目标大小及其之间的距离来改变在空间目标之间移动所需的时间。在一个九块空间广度任务中，无论是即时回忆还是间隔后的回忆，均未发现广度表现存在差异。当回忆来自一个由27个项目组成的阵列中的项目，这些项目被分成九组，每组三个，且在任何一次试验中每组仅呈现一个位置时，存在显示大小的效应。这种效应与移动时间与空间复述相关的观点一致，但也可能有其他解释。然而，如果在这个任务中的回忆是按九组而不是按27个项目计分，那么各显示之间没有差异。结果表明，正常的九块空间广度任务的表现无法通过移动时间来预测。
