Modality differences in relation to grouping in immediate recall

An earlier study of auditory grouped presentation of digit strings had shown recall to be impaired by recalling the last group first. From this, it has been concluded that the item codes formed at Stage 1 of processing, and before conversion to a group code at Stage 2, were not yet in an output buffer. The present paper employs visual presentation for two similar studies, with results opposite to the earlier one; in a third experiment, ungrouped auditory stimulation gave results which were a compromise between those for vision and those for grouped auditory stimulation. These results suggest a use of echoic storage, over long intervals; in the visual case this is not so and an output buffer is employed.