Changes of Pupil Size and Rehearsal Strategies in a Short-Term Memory Task

Twelve subjects learned lists consisting of 3 groups of 4 items each drawn from vocabularies of digits, colour names or boys' names. There were two conditions of recall, total or partial, and two retention intervals, 3 and 7 sec. A view of the function of rehearsal suggests that rehearsal for total recall should be more intense than for partial recall, but only with a brief retention interval. Measurements of pupillary diameter confirm this prediction. Conditions under which pupillary measurements can serve to test theories of psychological processes are discussed.

[1]  W. S. Peavler,et al.  Incentive effects and pupillary changes in association learning. , 1969, Journal of experimental psychology.

[2]  E. Hess,et al.  Pupil Size in Relation to Mental Activity during Simple Problem-Solving , 1964, Science.

[3]  D. Norman,et al.  Memory And Attention , 1968 .

[4]  Murray Glanzer,et al.  The effects of intralist activity on free recall , 1967 .

[5]  D. Broadbent.  Immediate Memory and Simultaneous Stimuli , 1957 .

[6]  E. Hess,et al.  PUPIL RESPONSE OF HETERO- AND HOMOSEXUAL MALES TO PICTURES OF MEN AND WOMEN: A PILOT STUDY. , 1965, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[7]  M. Posner,et al.  RATE OF PRESENTATION AND ORDER OF RECALL IN IMMEDIATE MEMORY. , 1964, British journal of psychology.

[8]  G. Sperling,et al.  Successive approximations to a model for short term memory. , 1967, Acta psychologica.

[9]  L. R. Peterson,et al.  Short-term retention of individual verbal items. , 1959, Journal of experimental psychology.

[10]  W. A. Wickelgren,et al.  SIZE OF REHEARSAL GROUP AND SHORT-TERM MEMORY. , 1964, Journal of experimental psychology.

[11]  M. H. Parry,et al.  Perceptual-motor behaviour in infancy as a function of age and stimulus familiarity. , 1969, British journal of psychology.

[12]  E. Hess.  ATTITUDE AND PUPIL SIZE. , 1965, Scientific American.

[13]  A. F. Sandeks.  Rehearsal and recall in immediate memory , 1961 .

[14]  J Ryan,et al.  Grouping and Short-Term Memory: Different Means and Patterns of Grouping , 1969, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[15]  N. Anderson,et al.  Poststimulus cuing in immediate memory. , 1960, Journal of experimental psychology.

[16]  Joanna Ryan.  Temporal Grouping, Rehearsal and Short-Term Memory , 1969, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[17]  E. N. Sokolov,et al.  Perception and the Conditioned Reflex , 1965 .

[18]  D. J. Murray.  Overt versus covert rehearsal in short-term memory , 1967 .

[19]  A. F. Sanders,et al.  THE INFLUENCE OF NOISE ON TWO DISCRIMINATION TASKS , 1961 .

[20]  M I Posner,et al.  Short term memory systems in human information processing. , 1967, Acta psychologica.

[21]  M. Corballis.  PATTERNS OF REHEARSAL IN IMMEDIATE MEMORY , 1969 .

[22]  D. Broadbent.  Perception and communication , 1958 .

[23]  Peter A. Tucker,et al.  Primary Memory , 1965, Encyclopedia of Database Systems.

[24]  D Kahneman,et al.  Pupil Diameter and Load on Memory , 1966, Science.

[25]  J F Mackworth.  Presentation rate, repetition, and organization in auditory short-term memory. , 1965, Canadian journal of psychology.

[26]  D. Kahneman,et al.  Effects of Grouping on the Pupillary Response in a Short-Term Memory Task , 1968, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[27]  J. Bradshaw.  Pupil Size and Problem Solving , 1968, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[28]  G. Raffel,et al.  Two Determinants of the Effect of Primacy , 1936 .

[29]  Jum C. Nunnally,et al.  Pupillary response as a general measure of activation , 1967 .

[30]  W. A. Wickelgren,et al.  Rehearsal Grouping and Hierarchical Organization of Serial Position Cues in Short-Term Memory , 1967, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[31]  D. Norman,et al.  The measure of interference in primary memory , 1968 .

[32]  Rehearsal strategies and the primacy effect in serial learning , 1964 .

[33]  W. S. Peavler,et al.  Effects of verbalization and incentive on the pupil response to mental activity. , 1968, Canadian journal of psychology.

[34]  D. Kahneman,et al.  Pupillary, heart rate, and skin resistance changes during a mental task. , 1969, Journal of experimental psychology.