Twisting tongues and memories: Explorations of the relationship between language production and verbal working memory

Many accounts of working memory posit specialized storage mechanisms for the maintenance of serial order. We explore an alternative, that maintenance is achieved through temporary activation in the language production architecture. Four experiments examined the extent to which the phonological simil...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of memory and language 2009-04, Vol.60 (3), p.329-350
Main Authors: Acheson, Daniel J., MacDonald, Maryellen C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive Processes
Error Analysis (Language)
Experiments
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Language
Language production
Learning. Memory
Memory
Oral Reading
Phonemes
Production and perception of spoken language
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reading Aloud to Others
Recall (Psychology)
Recognition (Psychology)
Serial Ordering
Serial recall
Short Term Memory
Speech
Speech errors
Stimuli
Tongue twister
Working memory
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Summary:Many accounts of working memory posit specialized storage mechanisms for the maintenance of serial order. We explore an alternative, that maintenance is achieved through temporary activation in the language production architecture. Four experiments examined the extent to which the phonological similarity effect can be explained as a sublexical speech error. Phonologically similar nonword stimuli were ordered to create tongue twister or control materials used in four tasks: reading aloud, immediate spoken recall, immediate typed recall, and serial recognition. Dependent measures from working memory (recall accuracy) and language production (speech errors) fields were used. Even though lists were identical except for item order, robust effects of tongue twisters were observed. Speech error analyses showed that errors were better described as phoneme rather than item ordering errors. The distribution of speech errors was comparable across all experiments and exhibited syllable-position effects, suggesting an important role for production processes. Implications for working memory and language production are discussed.
ISSN:0749-596X
1096-0821
DOI:10.1016/j.jml.2008.12.002