Memorial and strategic determinants of tactile recency

Across 4 experiments, recency arising from the presentation of 5-item tacti le lists was assessed with immediate and delayed recall with or without a s ame-modality suffix. The lists were presented with or without concurrent ve rbalization and at rates varying from 0.5 s to 2 s per item. Delaying recal l or the addition of a suffix impaired recency both in the absence of concu rrent verbalization during list presentation and at the 1-s presentation ra te. In contrast, both concurrent verbalization during list presentation and a 0.5-s presentation rate restored recency for both the delayed recall and suffix conditions. This pattern of data is problematic for sensory memory and for trace discriminability accounts of modality and suffix effects. It is suggested that a sensory memory account together with an attention-biasi ng strategy by which limited encoding resources are diverted toward the ter minal list item can better accommodate the data.