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Related Experiment Videos

Why does the phonological similarity effect reverse with nonwords?

Paul Johan Karlsen1, Anders Gravir Imenes, Kaja Johannessen

  • 1Department of Psychology, New York University, 715 Broadway, New York, NY 10003, USA. pjk231@nyu.edu

Psychological Research
|January 18, 2006
PubMed
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Phonological similarity hinders word recall but can aid nonword recall due to retrieval difficulty. This effect on item memory depends on whether words or nonwords are used, impacting short-term memory models.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • The phonological similarity effect (PSE) typically impairs serial recall of words.
  • This effect can reverse for nonwords, suggesting lexicality plays a role in memory retrieval.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate why phonological similarity benefits nonword retrieval.
  • To test if nonwords benefit from phonological similarity due to increased retrieval difficulty.

Main Methods:

  • Two experiments compared serial recall and serial reconstruction of visually presented words and nonwords.
  • Phonological similarity's impact on item memory and position accuracy was analyzed.

Main Results:

  • The detrimental PSE occurred for words in both tasks.

Related Experiment Videos

  • The PSE reversed for nonwords in serial recall but not in serial reconstruction.
  • Phonological similarity positively affected item memory and negatively affected position accuracy in serial recall.

    • Conclusions:

    • Detrimental PSE on order retrieval is independent of lexicality, aligning with short-term memory models.
    • Positive PSE on item retrieval is significantly influenced by lexicality, posing a challenge for current models.