A VISUOSPATIAL PHONOLOGICAL LOOP IN WORKING-MEMORY - EVIDENCE FROM AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE

In two experiments, the question of whether working memory could suppo rt an articulatory rehearsal loop in the visuospatial domain was inves tigated. Deaf subjects fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) were tes ted on immediate serial recall. In Experiment 1, using ASL stimuli, ev idence for manual motoric coding (worse recall under articulatory supp ression) was found, replicating findings of ASL-based phonological cod ing (worse recall for phonologically similar lists). The two effects d id not interact, suggesting separate components which both contribute to performance. Stimuli in Experiment 2 were namable pictures, which h ad to be recoded for ASL-based rehearsal to occur. Under these conditi ons, articulatory suppression eliminated the phonological similarity e ffect. Thus, an articulatory process seems to be used in translating p ictures into a phonological code for memory maintenance. These results indicate a configuration of components similar to the phonological lo op for speech, suggesting that working memory can develop a language-b ased rehearsal loop in the visuospatial modality.