Semantic categorisation of a word supports its phonological integrity in verbal short-term memory

TY - JOUR

T1 - Semantic categorisation of a word supports its phonological integrity in verbal short-term memory

AU - Savill, Nicola

AU - Metcalfe, Tim

AU - Ellis, Andrew W.

AU - Jefferies, Elizabeth

N1 - © 2015 Elsevier Inc. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Journal of Memory and Language. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Date of Acceptance: 11/06/2015.

PY - 2015/10

Y1 - 2015/10

N2 - In three immediate serial recall (ISR) experiments we tested the hypothesis that interactive processing between semantics and phonology supports phonological coherence in verbal short-term memory (STM). Participants categorised spoken words in six-item lists as they were presented, according to their semantic or phonological properties, then repeated the items in presentation order (Experiment 1). Despite matched categorisation performance between conditions, semantically-categorised words were correctly recalled more often than phonologically-categorised words. This accuracy advantage in the semantic condition was accompanied by fewer phoneme recombination errors. Comparisons with a no- categorisation ISR baseline (Experiment 2) indicated that, although categorisations were disruptive overall, recombination errors were specifically rarer following semantic cate- gorisation. Experiment 3 replicated the key findings from Experiment 1 and also revealed fewer phonologically-related errors following semantic categorisation compared to a per- ceptual categorisation of high or low pitch. Therefore, augmented activation of semantic representations stabilises the phonological traces of words within verbal short-term memory, in line with the ‘‘semantic binding” hypothesis.

AB - In three immediate serial recall (ISR) experiments we tested the hypothesis that interactive processing between semantics and phonology supports phonological coherence in verbal short-term memory (STM). Participants categorised spoken words in six-item lists as they were presented, according to their semantic or phonological properties, then repeated the items in presentation order (Experiment 1). Despite matched categorisation performance between conditions, semantically-categorised words were correctly recalled more often than phonologically-categorised words. This accuracy advantage in the semantic condition was accompanied by fewer phoneme recombination errors. Comparisons with a no- categorisation ISR baseline (Experiment 2) indicated that, although categorisations were disruptive overall, recombination errors were specifically rarer following semantic cate- gorisation. Experiment 3 replicated the key findings from Experiment 1 and also revealed fewer phonologically-related errors following semantic categorisation compared to a per- ceptual categorisation of high or low pitch. Therefore, augmented activation of semantic representations stabilises the phonological traces of words within verbal short-term memory, in line with the ‘‘semantic binding” hypothesis.

KW - Immediate serial recall

KW - Language processing

KW - Phoneme binding

KW - Semantic

KW - Verbal short-term memory

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84935006175&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.jml.2015.06.003

DO - 10.1016/j.jml.2015.06.003

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84935006175

VL - 84

SP - 128

EP - 138

JO - Journal of Memory and Language

JF - Journal of Memory and Language

SN - 0749-596X

ER -