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Short-term memory for serial order: the Start-End Model

¹Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, United Kingdom. r.henson@ucl.ac.uk

Cognitive Psychology

|August 29, 1998

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The Start-End Model (SEM) explains short-term memory serial recall, outperforming chaining theories by accurately predicting error patterns. SEM models item positions relative to sequence start and end, capturing various recall phenomena.

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Computational Modeling

Background:

Serial order recall is a fundamental aspect of short-term memory.
Existing chaining theories do not adequately explain observed error patterns in serial recall.

Purpose of the Study:

To propose and validate a new model of short-term memory for serial order recall.
To account for the complete pattern of errors observed in short-term memory recall.

Main Methods:

Development of the Start-End Model (SEM) based on positional coding relative to sequence start and end.
Simulations to test SEM's ability to replicate known serial recall phenomena and error patterns.

Main Results:

SEM successfully captures key phenomena like primacy, recency, list length, and modality effects.

Related Experiment Videos

SEM accurately predicts a comprehensive range of errors, including transpositions, repetitions, omissions, and positional errors.

SEM's prediction of relative positional error maintenance aligns with experimental findings.

Conclusions:

The Start-End Model (SEM) provides a robust explanation for serial order recall in short-term memory.
SEM offers a superior account of recall errors compared to previous chaining and positional theories.
SEM's framework advances our understanding of how positional information is represented and utilized in memory.