Verbal short-term memory:cognitive and neuroscientific tests of a perceptual-gestural account

Kozlov, Michail Dmitrievic 2012. Verbal short-term memory:cognitive and neuroscientific tests of a perceptual-gestural account. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

It has often been suggested that verbal short-term memory, the ability to maintain verbal information for a brief period of time, is based on the upload of to-be-remembered material into passive, dedicated, information stores. Alternatively, it has been claimed that all information is remembered but that access to it gets obstructed because of interference by subsequent similar material. The aim of the present thesis was to challenge both these approaches and to examine the viability of a different, perceptual-gestural, view of information buffering over the short term. This approach conceptualizes verbal short-term storage as an active process that emerges from, and is defined by, the recruitment of receptive and (speech) productive mechanisms.In Experiments 1-3, the significant impact of non-verbal concurrent motor tasks on verbal short-term memory suggests an active involvement of productive mechanisms. These experiments also cast doubt on the proposal that forgetting occurs because of interference by similar content. Experiment 4 expands upon this challenge of the interference-based view by showing that a temporary lesion of a brain area involved in speech planning (Broca’s area), induced with transcranial magnetic stimulation, affects verbal short-term memory performance in the absence of any additional potentially interfering verbal input. Further, challenging the store-based view, the virtual lesion of Broca’s area also attenuated the phonological similarity effect,a hallmark effect of the function of the hypothetical language-independent store. Finally, Experiments 5-9 sought to determine the origin of variations in recall performance as a function of sensory-modality of input. It is concluded that only the perceptual-gestural approach can offer an account of presentation type-based differences in verbal list recall that goes beyond a redescription of the observed effects. The thesis closes with an outline of a neurological model of active storage of verbal information over the short-term.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Psychology
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Funders:	BBSRC, School of Psychology, Cardiff University
Last Modified:	19 Mar 2016 23:06
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/38725

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