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Is the immediate memory span determined by subvocalization rate?
Author(s) -
Standing Lionel,
Bond Barbara,
Smith Philip,
Isely Catherine
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1980.tb01764.x
Subject(s) - psychology , span (engineering) , memory span , short term memory , audiology , echoic memory , attention span , statistics , developmental psychology , cognition , working memory , mathematics , neuroscience , structural engineering , medicine , engineering
The immediate memory span for eight types of material was measured, using 24 subjects, and various possible predictor variables were recorded. Span size for individual subjects was most highly correlated ( r = —0–75) with their time‐scores on a subvocalization task; it appeared essentially unrelated to subject variables such as age, IQ, echoic memory and longer‐term memory. Span sizes for the different materials were also highly correlated with the mean subvocalization times found for these stimuli ( r = —0–90), although the information content of the materials also appeared influential. Together, subvocalization rate and information content accounted for 98 per cent of the observed variance in span size across materials. A second experiment indicated that span size and subvocalization time were both unaffected by alcohol, while a third study indicated that span was decreased, and subvocalization time increased proportionately, by testing in a bilingual subject's second language. The data of all three experiments suggest that the span for a given type of material corresponds approximately to the number of items that the subject can subvocalize silently or in whispers in a fixed time interval (about 1–8 s or 2–2 s respectively, although these values are not constant across experiments). The results are interpreted as being consistent with a verbal‐loop process in short‐term memory, such that more items are maintained in storage if they can be circulated rapidly through this loop.