A number of recent studies have explored the role of long-term memory factors in memory span tasks. The effects of lexicality, frequency, imageability, and word class have been investigated. The work reported in this paper examined the effect of semantic organization on the recall of short lists of words. Specifically, the influence of semantic category on immediate serial recall and the interaction of this variable with articulatory suppression was investigated in three experiments. Experiment 1 compared immediate serial recall performance when lists comprising items from the same semantic category were used (homogeneous condition) with a situation where lists held items from different semantic categories. Experiment 2 examined the same conditions with and without articulatory suppression during item presentation, and Experiment 3 reproduced these conditions with suppression occurring throughout presentation and recall. Results of all three experiments showed a clear advantage for the homogeneous condition. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the homogeneous category advantage did not depend on the articulatory loop. Furthermore, error analysis indicated that this effect was mainly attributable to better item information recall for the homogeneous condition. These results are interpreted as reflecting a long-term memory contribution to the recall stage of immediate serial recall tasks.

Two studies were conducted to determine the extent to which young children fixate on the print of storybooks during shared book reading. Children's books varying in the layout of the print and the richness of the illustrations were displayed on a computer monitor. Each child's mother or preschool teacher read the books while the child sat on the adult's lap wearing an EyeLink headband that recorded visual fixations. In both studies, children spent very little time examining the print regardless of the nature of the print and illustrations. Although fixations on the illustrations were highly correlated with the length of the accompanying text and could be altered by altering the content of the text, fixations to the text were uncorrelated with the length of the text. These results indicate that preschool children engage in minimal exploration of the print during shared book reading.

Eighteen subjects completed an immediate serial recall task, where the to-be-recalled lists consisted of either high, medium, or low-frequency items. Moreover, lists were either phonologically similar or distinct. Results showed that increasing frequency enhanced item information recall but had no effect on order recall. Conversely, increasing phonological similarity had a detrimental effect on order recall but no significant effect on item recall. It is argued that both effects reflect retrieval processes 'where degraded representations are reconstructed on the basis of long-term knowledge: Low-frequency words have reduced accessibility, lowering the probability of correct reconstruction, and phonologically similar items are more easily confused with other recall candidates.Resume Dix-huit sujets completent une tache de rappel seriel immediat. La frequence des mots (elevee, moyenne, ou faible) est manipulee de meme que leur similarite phonologique. Les resultats montrent que la frequence ameliore le rappel des items sans affecter celui de 1'ordre. Inversement, la similarite phonologique nuit au rappel de 1'ordre sans affecter le rappel des items. Les processus de recuperation expliqueraient ces effets. Au moment du rappel, les traces degradees des items seraient reconstruites a l'aide de representations a long terme; ces representations seraient moins accessibles pour les mots de frequence faible et plus faciles a confondre pour les mots similaires.

Visual-spatial working memory measures are widely used in clinical and experimental settings. Furthermore, it has been argued that the male advantage in spatial abilities can be explained by a sex difference in visual-spatial working memory. Therefore, sex differences in visual-spatial working memory have important implication for research, theory, and practice, but they have yet to be quantified. The present metaanalysis quantified the magnitude of sex differences in visualspatial working memory and examined variables that might moderate them. The analysis used a set of 180 effect sizes from healthy males and females drawn from 98 samples ranging in mean age from 3 to 86 years. Multilevel meta-analysis was used on the overall data set to account for nonindependent effect sizes. The data also were analyzed in separate task subgroups by means of multilevel and mixed-effects models. Results showed a small but significant male advantage (mean d = 0.155, 95 % confidence interval = 0.087-0.223). All the tasks produced a male advantage, except for memory for location, where a female advantage emerged. Age of the participants was a significant moderator, indicating that sex differences in visual-spatial working memory appeared first in the 13-17 years age group. Removing memory for location tasks from the sample affected the pattern of significant moderators. The present results indicate a male advantage in visual-spatial working memory, although age and specific task modulate the magnitude and direction of the effects. Implications for clinical applications, cognitive model building, and experimental research are discussed.

Four experiments investigated the disruptive effect of semantic similarity on short-term ordered recall. Experiments 1 and 2 contrasted immediate serial recall performance for lists of semantically similar items, drawn from the same semantic category, with performance for lists that contained items from different categories. Experiments 1 and 2 showed the usual similarity advantage for item information recall, but, contrary to expectations, there was no similarity disadvantage for the recall of order information even when the level of item recall was controlled. Experiments 3 and 4 replicate and extend these findings by using an order reconstruction task or a limited word pool strategy, both of which yield alternate measures of order retention. These findings clearly contradict the wide spread belief stating that semantic similarity hinders the short-term recall of order information. Results are discussed in the light of a retrieval-based account where the effects of semantic similarity reflect the processes called upon at recall: It is suggested that long-term knowledge is accessed to support the interpretation of degraded phonological traces.