The temporal capacity of verbal short-term memory

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Nakeung Lee's study tests two core assumptions of the phonological loop model by examining the effects of irrelevant speech and articulatory suppression. The first assumption is that speech directly accesses the phonological store, while read material requires subvocal rehearsal. This was confirmed in experiments 1 and 2, where articulatory suppression eliminated the irrelevant speech effect for visually presented items but not for auditory ones. Experiments 3, 3a, and 4 explored the temporal capacity of the phonological store, revealing that the irrelevant speech effect persisted for at least 10 seconds, even with suppressed articulation. This contradicts Baddeley's claim that phonological traces decay rapidly without rehearsal. The findings indicate that phonological codes can be maintained without subvocal rehearsal for longer than previously thought. The comparison of irrelevant speech effects between visual and auditory presentations led to further investigation in experiments 5 and 6, suggesting that the mechanisms behind the irrelevant speech effect for auditory items may align with those of the suffix effect. Overall, the results indicate that the irrelevant speech effects for visual and auditory presentations do not operate under the same mechanism.