Lexicality and phonological similarity: A challenge for the retrieval‐based account of serial recall?

Abstract

The retrieval‐based account of serial recall (Saint‐Aubin & Poirier, 2000) attributes lexicality, phonological similarity, and articulatory suppression effects to a process where long‐term representations are used to reconstruct degraded phonological traces. Two experiments tested this assumption by manipulating these factors in the recall of four‐ and five‐item lists of words and non‐words. Lexicality enhanced item recall (IR), but only affected position accuracy (PA) for five‐item lists under suppression. Phonological similarity influenced both words and non‐words, and produced impaired PA in silent and suppressed conditions. Consistent with the retrieval‐based account, words and non‐words of high word‐likeness appear subject to redintegration. However, some findings, like suppression not reducing the phonological similarity impairment in suppressed conditions, present challenges for the retrieval‐based account and other models of serial recall.

Notes

Correspondence should be addressed to Anthony B. Fallon, Centre for Rural and Remote Area Health, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, 4350. Email: [email protected]

Research was partially supported by a USQ Early Career Research Grant awarded to the first author. Experiment 2 represented part of the second author's Honours dissertation. Thanks to Geoff Argus and Nicole Burgess for their assistance in data collection, and Jean Saint‐Aubin and an anonymous reviewer for comments on a previous version of this manuscript.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Charmaine Daly

Correspondence should be addressed to Anthony B. Fallon, Centre for Rural and Remote Area Health, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, 4350. Email: [email protected] Research was partially supported by a USQ Early Career Research Grant awarded to the first author. Experiment 2 represented part of the second author's Honours dissertation. Thanks to Geoff Argus and Nicole Burgess for their assistance in data collection, and Jean Saint‐Aubin and an anonymous reviewer for comments on a previous version of this manuscript.