Timeless memory: Evidence against temporal distinctiveness models of short-term memory for serial order

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2005.08.004 Byline: Stephan Lewandowsky (a), Gordon D.A. Brown (b), Tarryn Wright (a), Lisa M. Nimmo (a) Keywords: Short-term memory; Serial recall; Time and memory; Computational modeling Abstract: According to temporal distinctiveness models, items that are temporally isolated from their neighbors during list presentation are more distinct and thus should be recalled better. Event-based theories, by contrast, deny that time plays a role at encoding and predict no beneficial effect of temporal isolation, although they acknowledge that a pause after item presentation may afford extra opportunity for a consolidation process such as rehearsal or grouping. We report two experiments aimed at differentiating between the two classes of theories. The results show that neither serial recall nor probed recall benefit from temporal isolation, unless participants use pauses to group a list. Simulations of the SIMPLE model provide convergent evidence that short-term memory for serial order need not involve temporal representations. Author Affiliation: (a) University of Western Australia, Australia (b) University of Warwick and University of Western Australia, Australia Article History: Received 21 December 2004; Revised 8 August 2005 Article Note: (footnote) [star] Preparation of this paper was facilitated by a Large Grant and by a Discovery Grant from the Australian Research Council to the first author, and by a Linkage International Grant from the Australian Research Council to the first and second author. We gratefully acknowledge assistance from Leo Roberts at all stages of manuscript preparation and Daniel Little for assistance during data collection.