The nature of the rehearsal mechanism that supports short-term memory span (STM), and the role of lexical and semantic knowledge in list recall was evaluated. Forty university students (aged 17-29 years) recalled lists of words varied in syllable-length (SL), articulatory duration (AD), phonological similarity (PS), semantic relatedness (SR) and frequency of occurrence (FO). Auditory and visual presentation, vocal and picture-pointing recall, and concurrent articulation conditions were included. Nonword recall was evaluated using stimuli varied in SL and PS was also evaluated using a repetition task. Word length effects were found for word stimuli varied in SL but were absent or reversed for stimuli varied in AD. A non-articulatory basis for rehearsal is suggested. The influence of long-term semantic and lexical knowledge in recall is inconclusive due to a lack of SR. Nonword repetition ability reflects STM capacity in adult subjects and correlates with other measures of STM span.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.27391 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Pollock, Susan, 1965- |
| Contributors | Waters, Gloria S. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (School of Communication Sciences and Disorders.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001565476, proquestno: MQ29766, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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