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The present study addresses the relationship between linguistic and non-linguistic spatial representations. In three experiments we probe spatial language and spatial memory at the same time points in the task sequence. Experiments 1 and 2 show analogous delay-dependent biases in spatial language and spatial memory. Experiment 3 extends this correspondence, showing that additional perceptual structure along the vertical axis reduces delay-dependent effects in both tasks. These results indicate that linguistic and non-linguistic spatial systems depend on shared underlying representational processes. In addition, we also address how these delay-dependent biases can arise within a single theoretical framework without positing differing prototypes for linguistic and non-linguistic spatial systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study of the phonological similarity effect (PSE) in immediate serial recall (ISR) has produced a conflicting body of results. Five experiments tested various theoretical ideas that together may help integrate these results. Experiments 1 and 2 tested alternative accounts that explain the effect of phonological similarity on item recall in terms of feature overlap, linguistic structure, or serial order. In each experiment, the participants' TSR was assessed for rhyming, alliterative, and similar nonrhyming/ nonalliterative lists. The results were consistent with the predictions of the serial order account, with item recall being higher for rhyming than for alliterative lists and higher for alliterative than for similar nonrhyming/nonalliterative lists. Experiments 3 and 4 showed that these item recall differences are reduced when list items repeat across lists. Experiment 5 employed rhyming and dissimilar one-syllable and two-syllable lists to demonstrate that recall for similar (rhyming) lists can be better than that for dissimilar lists even in a typical ISR task in which words are used, providing a direct reversal of the classic PSE. These and other previously published results are interpreted and integrated within a proposed theoretical framework that offers an account of the PSE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of research has emphasized the linkage between performance in immediate serial recall of lists, nonword repetition, and word learning. Recently, it has been reported that primacy and recency effects are obtained in repetition of individual syllables within nonwords (Gupta, in press). Five experiments examined whether such with- in-nonword primacy and recency effects are attributable to common sequencing mechanisms that are shared with immediate list recall. Experiments 1 and 2 indicated that the primacy and recency effects are not simply due to greater morphological salience at the beginnings/endings of nonwords, and that the serial position effects generalize to different stimuli and across a variety of stimulus lengths. Experiment 3 indicated that the primacy and recency effects are similar to those obtained in list recall. Experiments 4 and 5 examined alternative hypotheses for the observed serial position effects, concluding that the alternative hypotheses fail to account for the obtained pattern of results. These results provide support for the common sequencing mechanisms hypothesis. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of the relationship between list recall and nonword repetition, and in terms of broader issues in word learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twelve experiments examined the effect of neighborhood density on repetition latency for nonwords. Previous reports have indicated that nonwords from high density neighborhoods are repeated with shorter latency than nonwords from low density neighborhoods (e.g., Vitevitch & Luce, 1998). Experiment 1 replicated these previously reported results; however, further analysis indicated an interaction of neighborhood density and stimulus duration in determining nonword repetition latency. Experiment 2 employed stimuli with reduced durational differences, finding that there was no effect of neighborhood density on repetition latency when stimulus duration was statistically controlled. Experiments 3 and 4 replicated these results with an alternative presentation regimen. Experiments 5–12 repeated these investigations with different stimulus sets, and obtained consistent effects of stimulus duration on repetition latency, and either no effect of neighborhood density or a latency advantage for low density rather than high density nonwords. The theoretical implications of these results for models of lexical processing are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]