Modality-specific grouping effects in short-term memory

Abstract Previous investigations of immediate serial recall have attributed the beneficial effect of temporal grouping to the increased rehearsal time afforded by intralist pauses. The three experiments described in the present article, together with previously reported data on auditory grouping, indicate that there is a substantial recall advantage for grouped lists with auditory but not with visual presentation. It is argued that temporal grouping of auditory lists enables greater use to be made of precategorical acoustic storage (PAS). Implications of these findings for theories concerning utilization of PAS information are briefly discussed.

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