First things first: similar list length and output order effects for verbal and nonverbal stimuli

When participants are presented with a short list of unrelated words and they are instructed that they may recall in any order, they nevertheless show a very strong tendency to recall in forward serial order. Thus, if asked to recall in any order: "hat, mouse, tea, stairs," participants often respond "hat, mouse, tea, stairs" even though there was no forward order requirement of the task. In 4 experiments, we examined whether this tendency is language-specific, reflecting mechanisms involved with speech perception, speech production, and/or verbal short-term memory. Specifically, we examined whether we would observe similar findings when participants were asked to recall, in any order, lists of between 1 and 15 nonverbal stimuli, such as visuospatial locations (Experiment 1, Experiment 3, Experiment 4), or touched facial locations (Experiment 2). Contrary to a language-specific explanation, we found corresponding tendencies (albeit somewhat reduced) in the immediate free recall of these nonverbal stimuli. We conclude that the tendency to initiate recall of a short sequence of items with the first item is a general property of memory, which may be augmented by verbal coding.