Gilbert, Rebecca Anne, Hitch, Graham James and Hartley, Tom orcid.org/0000-0002-4072-6637 (2016) Temporal precision and the capacity of auditory-verbal short-term memory. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. pp. 1-43. ISSN 1747-0226
Abstract
The capacity of serially-ordered auditory-verbal short-term memory (AVSTM) is sensitive to the timing of the material to be stored, and both temporal processing and AVSTM capacity are implicated in the development of language. We developed a novel “rehearsal-probe” task to investigate the relationship between temporal precision and the capacity to remember serial order. Participants listened to a sub-span sequence of spoken digits and silently rehearsed the items and their timing during an unfilled retention interval. After an unpredictable delay, a tone prompted report of the item being rehearsed at that moment. An initial experiment showed cyclic distributions of item responses over time, with peaks preserving serial order and broad, overlapping tails. The spread of the response distributions increased with additional memory load and correlated negatively with participants’ auditory digit spans. A second study replicated the negative correlation and demonstrated its specificity to AVSTM by controlling for differences in visuo-spatial STM and nonverbal IQ. The results are consistent with the idea that a common resource underpins both the temporal precision and capacity of AVSTM. The rehearsal-probe task may provide a valuable tool for investigating links between temporal processing and AVSTM capacity in the context of speech and language abilities.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016, Informa Group plc. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Psychology (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 23 Sep 2016 10:22 |
Last Modified: | 04 Mar 2025 00:04 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2016.1239749 |
Status: | Published online |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/17470218.2016.1239749 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:104876 |
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