Phonological similarity in working memory

That phonologically similar words in a short-term memory test are more diff icult to recall than phonologically dissimilar words is a well-known phenom enon. This effect is the phonological similarity decrement. In the present study, we examined whether this phonological similarity decrement is presen t when additional semantic information is available, as in a reading span t est, as compared with a standard presentation, or in the context of an oper ation span test. The results revealed a phonological similarity facilitatio n. Phonologically similar words were remembered better than phonologically dissimilar words.