Semantic similarity dissociates short- from long-term recency effects: testing a neurocomputational model of list memory.

Full Abstract

The finding that recency effects can occur not only in immediate free recall (i.e., short-term recency) but also in the continuous-distractor task (ie., long-term recency) has led many theorists to reject the distinction between short- and long-term memory stores. Recently, we have argued that long-term recency effects do not undermine the concept of a short-term store, and we have presented a neurocomputational model that accounts for both short- and long-term recency and for a series of dissociations between these two effects. Here, we present a new dissociation between short- and long-term recency based on semantic similarity, which is predicted by our model. This dissociation is due to the mutual support between associated items in the short-term store, which takes place in immediate free recall and delayed free recall but not in continuous-distractor free recall.

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Author information

Author/s: Davelaar, Eddy J (EJ); Haarmann, Henk J (HJ); Goshen-Gottstein, Yonatan (Y); Usher, Marius (M);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. edavelaar(-atsign-)psyc.umd.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Memory & cognition (Mem Cognit), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Mar; vol 34 (issue 2) : pp 323-34

Dates: Created 2006/06/06; Completed 2006/07/03; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 16752596, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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