Semantic categorisation of a word supports its phonological integrity in verbal short-term memory

• Published in: Journal of memory and language Vol. 84; pp. 128 - 138
• Main Authors: Savill, Nicola, Metcalfe, Tim, Ellis, Andrew W., Jefferies, Elizabeth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Elsevier Inc 01.10.2015; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Immediate serial recall; Language processing; Memory; Phoneme binding; Phonemes; Phonemics; Phonetics; Phonology; Recall (Psychology); Semantic; Semantics; Semiotics; Short Term Memory; Verbal short-term memory; Immediate serial recall; Phoneme binding; Language processing; Semantic; Verbal short-term memory
• ISSN: 0749-596X; 1096-0821
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2015.06.003

•Integrity of words in short-term memory tested after encoding manipulations.•Semantic encoding improved phonological coherence of words in immediate recall.•Fewer phoneme blend errors than after phonological, pitch, or no categorisation.•Evidence supporting semantic binding hypothesis shown in healthy adults. In three immediate serial recall (ISR) experiments we tested the hypothesis that interactive processing between semantics and phonology supports phonological coherence in verbal short-term memory (STM). Participants categorised spoken words in six-item lists as they were presented, according to their semantic or phonological properties, then repeated the items in presentation order (Experiment 1). Despite matched categorisation performance between conditions, semantically-categorised words were correctly recalled more often than phonologically-categorised words. This accuracy advantage in the semantic condition was accompanied by fewer phoneme recombination errors. Comparisons with a no-categorisation ISR baseline (Experiment 2) indicated that, although categorisations were disruptive overall, recombination errors were specifically rarer following semantic categorisation. Experiment 3 replicated the key findings from Experiment 1 and also revealed fewer phonologically-related errors following semantic categorisation compared to a perceptual categorisation of high or low pitch. Therefore, augmented activation of semantic representations stabilises the phonological traces of words within verbal short-term memory, in line with the “semantic binding” hypothesis.