Introduction to Cognitive Psychology - Department of Psychological ...

Prof. Greg Francis 8/16/11Phonological similarity!! Memory of a list of items is worsewhen the items sound the samePhonological similarity!! All items are stored in phonological loop!! similar sounding items interfere with each other in thephonological loop!! two possibilities:»! 1) harder to rehearse (effect in the ACP)»! 2) fade more quickly (effect in the PS)B F H NBG P TBetterrecallWorserecallPhonological loopACPNFPSH BPhonological loopACPG PBPSTPurdue UniversityPurdue UniversityPhonological similarity!! All items are stored in phonological loop!! similar sounding items interfere with each other in thephonological loop!! two possibilities:»! 1) harder to rehearse (effect in the ACP)»! 2) fade more quickly (effect in the PS)Phonological loopPhonological loopLocus of similarity effect!! Studies find a phonological similarity effect for auditory stimuliunder articulatory suppression!! We suggested two possibilities:»! 1) harder to rehearse (effect in the ACP)»! 2) fade more quickly (effect in the PS)!! Since the phonological similarity effect is there even when theACP is not involved, it must be possibility 2 (in the PS)ACPFPSH B NACPPS B GP TProportion recalledPurdue UniversityPurdue UniversityCogLab data!! The CogLab experiment on memory span shows datain agreement with our expectations (189 subjects)!! Item type Final list length!! Numbers ! ! !6.47!!! Letters that sound different !5.66!!! Letters that sound similar !5.01!!! Short words ! ! !5.20!!! Long words ! ! !4.17About 7Phonologicalsimilarity effectWord lengtheffectIrrelevant speech effect!! Does irrelevant “background” sound affectmemory?!!E.g., studying with the TV on!! Three groups of subjects recall consonants!!1) no backgroundbest!!2) background = nonsense words!!3) background = noise burstsworstPurdue UniversityPurdue UniversityPSY 200: Intro. to Cognitive Psychology 3