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Recent studies of short-term serial order memory have suggested that the maintenance of order information does not involve domain-specific processes. We carried out two dual-task experiments aimed at resolving several ambiguities in those studies. In our experiments, encoding and response of one serial reconstruction task was embedded within encoding and response of a concurrent serial reconstruction task. Order demands in both tasks were independently varied so as to find revealing patterns of interference between the two tasks. In Experiment 1, participants were to maintain and reconstruct the order of a list of verbal materials, while maintaining a list of spatial materials or vice-versa. Increasing the order demands in the outer reconstruction task resulted in small or non-reliable performance decrements in the embedded reconstruction task. Experiment 2 sought to compare these results against two same-domain baseline conditions (two verbal lists or two spatial lists). In all conditions, increasing order demands in the outer task resulted in small or non-reliable performance decrements in the embedded task. However, performance in the embedded tasks was generally lower in the same-domain baseline conditions than in the cross-domain conditions. We argue that the main effect of domain in Experiment 2 indicates the contribution of domain-specific processes to short-term serial order maintenance. In addition, we interpret the failure to find consistent cross-list interference irrespective of domain as indicating the involvement of grouping mechanisms in concurrently performed serial order tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] A speech-error induction technique revealed principles of serial order control. [•] The technique successfully induced within-word adjacent mora exchanges in Japanese. [•] The exchange errors indicate the temporal distance principle within a word. [•] Induced speech errors exhibited serial position effects. [•] The serial position effects indicate the edge principle within a word. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active maintenance of goal representations is an integral part of our mental regulatory processes. Previous developmental studies have highlighted goal neglect, which is the phenomenon caused by a failure to maintain goal representations, and demonstrated developmental changes of the ability to maintain goal representations among preschoolers. Yet, few studies have explored the cognitive mechanisms underlying preschoolers' development of goal maintenance. The first aim of this study was to test whether working memory capacity and inhibitory control contribute to goal maintenance using a paradigm for measuring goal neglect. Moreover, although recent studies have shown that preschoolers recruit lateral prefrontal regions in performing executive functions tasks, they could not specify the neural underpinnings of goal maintenance. Thus, the second aim was to examine whether lateral prefrontal regions played a key role in maintaining goal representations using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Our results showed that developmental differences in inhibitory control predicted the degree of goal neglect. It was also demonstrated that activation in the right prefrontal region was associated with children's successful avoidance of goal neglect. These findings offer important insights into the cognitive and neural underpinnings of goal maintenance in preschoolers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]