FORWARD AND BACKWARD SERIAL-RECALL

The present study examined whether forward and backward serial recall performance reflects different codes, or different levels of processin g complexity. One hundred twenty-two participants saw sequences of 2 t o 9 letters (phonologically similar or dissimilar) for 1 second each i n the center of a computer screen, and recalled the letters in forward or backward order. Participants correctly recalled more when letters were phonologically dissimilar, and when recall direction was forward. No interaction was found between direction of recall and phonological similarity, which suggests that a phonological code was used for both forward and backward recall. Also, forward and backward recall did no t differentially predict SAT performance, which suggests I:hat forward and backward recall required a similar level of processing complexity .