Revisiting backward recall and benchmark memory effects: a reply to Bireta et al. (2010)
- 12 November 2011
- journal article
- editorial
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Memory & Cognition
- Vol. 40 (3), 388-407
- https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-011-0156-2
Abstract
When participants are asked to recall lists of items in the reverse order, known as backward recall, several benchmark memory phenomena, such as the word length effect, are abolished (Bireta et al. Memory & Cognition 38:279–291, 2010). Bireta et al. (Memory & Cognition 38:279–291, 2010) suggested that in backward recall, reliance on order retention is increased at the expense of item retention, leading to the abolition of item-based phenomena. In a subsequent study, however, Guérard and Saint-Aubin (in press) showed that four lexical factors known to modulate item retention were unaffected by recall direction. In a series of five experiments, we examined the source of the discrepancy between the two studies. We revisited the effects of phonological similarity, word length, articulatory suppression, and irrelevant speech, using open and closed pools of words in backward and forward recall. The results are unequivocal in showing that none of these effects are influenced by recall direction, suggesting that Bireta et al.’s (Memory & Cognition 38:279–291, 2010) results are the consequence of their particular stimuli.Keywords
This publication has 36 references indexed in Scilit:
- Backward recall and benchmark effects of working memoryMemory & Cognition, 2010
- The interaction of word frequency and concreteness in immediate serial recallMemory & Cognition, 2009
- Directly assessing the relationship between irrelevant speech and irrelevant tapping.Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology / Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale, 2008
- High- and low-frequency words are recalled equally well in alternating lists: Evidence for associative effects in serial recallJournal of Memory and Language, 2003
- Word-frequency effects on short-term memory tasks: Evidence for a redintegration process in immediate serial recall.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1997
- Forward and backward memory span should not be combined for clinical analysisArchives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 1997
- Implications of aging, lexicality, and item length for the mechanisms underlying memory spanPsychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1996
- Irrelevant speech, serial rehearsal, and temporal distinctiveness: A new approach to the irrelevant speech effect.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1996
- Irrelevant speech, serial rehearsal, and temporal distinctiveness: A new approach to the irrelevant speech effect.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1996
- Properties of memory for unattended spoken syllables.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1990