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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 23, 2026

A Semantic Priming Event-related Potential ERP Task to Study Lexico-semantic and Visuo-semantic Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder
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Automatic semantic encoding in verbal short-term memory: evidence from the concreteness effect.

Guillermo Campoy1, Judit Castellà, Violeta Provencio

  • 1a Faculty of Psychology , University of Murcia , Murcia , Spain.

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)
|September 19, 2014
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Semantic encoding in verbal short-term memory (STM) is automatic, not strategic. This study found that even when attention was limited, the concreteness effect in STM remained consistent, suggesting automatic semantic processing.

Keywords:
Concreteness effectDual task paradigmImmediate serial recallPresentation rateVerbal short-term memory

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Memory Research

Background:

  • The concreteness effect in verbal short-term memory (STM) tasks is often attributed to semantic encoding.
  • Concrete words are thought to benefit from richer semantic representations during immediate recall.
  • This suggests that semantic encoding in STM may rely on controlled, attention-demanding processes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether semantic encoding in verbal STM tasks is a consequence of strategic, attention-demanding mechanisms.
  • To test the hypothesis that the concreteness effect arises from strategic semantic retrieval and encoding.

Main Methods:

  • Experiment 1 examined the effect of presentation rate on the concreteness effect, hypothesizing slower rates would enhance strategic encoding.
  • Experiments 2 and 3 introduced concurrent attention-demanding tasks to limit attentional resources.
  • Memory performance and the concreteness effect were measured under varying attentional loads.

Main Results:

  • Experiment 1 revealed a larger concreteness effect with slower presentation rates.
  • However, concurrent tasks in Experiments 2 and 3 did not alter the magnitude of the concreteness effect, despite reducing overall memory performance.
  • This indicates that attentional load does not influence the concreteness effect.

Conclusions:

  • Semantic effects in STM appear to result from automatic semantic encoding, not strategic processes.
  • The findings challenge the notion that the concreteness effect is driven by controlled, attention-demanding mechanisms.
  • Tentative explanations are proposed for the observed interaction between the concreteness effect and presentation rate, emphasizing automaticity.