THE SANDWICH EFFECT - THE ROLE OF ATTENTIONAL FACTORS IN SERIAL-RECALL

Five experiments tested the prediction, from a simple chaining model, that interleaving irrelevant material will substantially disrupt immediate serial recall. Experiment 1 interpolated long or short words between items in an auditory digit span test. These two ''sandwich'' conditions disrupted recall to an equal but moderate extent. Experiment 2 presented mixed lists of digits and words, cuing one or the other before or after presentation. Precuing led to substantially better recall. Experiment 3 used articulatory suppression to rule out the hypothesis that recall was protected from the sandwich effect by subvocal rehearsal. Experiment 4 combined the sandwich effect with a concurrent task, finding clear effects of both but no interaction. Experiment 5 showed that the predictability of interpolated material did not influence recall. These results can be explained by adding an attentional preprocessor to standard chaining models.