MEMORY FOR RELATED AND UNRELATED WORDS - FURTHER EVIDENCE ON THE INFLUENCE OF SEMANTIC FACTORS IN IMMEDIATE SERIAL-RECALL

A number of recent studies have explored the role of long-term memory factors in memory span tasks. The effects of lexicality, frequency, im ageability, and word class have been investigated. The work reported i n this paper examined the effect of semantic organization on the recal l of short lists of words. Specifically, the influence of semantic cat egory on immediate serial recall and the interaction of this variable with articulatory suppression was investigated in three experiments. E xperiment 1 compared immediate serial recall performance when lists co mprising items from the same semantic category were used (homogeneous condition) with a situation where lists held items from different sema ntic categories. Experiment 2 examined the same conditions with and wi thout articulatory suppression during item presentation, and Experimen t 3 reproduced these conditions with suppression occurring throughout presentation and recall. Results of all three experiments showed a cle ar advantage for the homogeneous condition. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the homogeneous category advantage did not depend on the articul atory loop. Furthermore, error analysis indicated that this effect was mainly attributable to better item information recall for the homogen eous condition. These results are interpreted as reflecting a long-ter m memory contribution to the recall stage of immediate serial recall t asks.