IS THE ARTICULATORY LOOP ARTICULATORY OR AUDITORY - REEXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF CONCURRENT ARTICULATION ON IMMEDIATE SERIAL-RECALL

Results from the paradigm of immediate serial recall form the basis of the influential ''articulatory loop'' model of auditory-verbal short-term memory (Baddeley, 1986). Central to the development of these ideas have been results obtained in immediate serial recall under the condition of concurrent articulation. We reexamine the affects of concurrent articulation and show that findings from immediate serial recall do not uniquely support the articulatory rehearsal hypothesis: the data can be accounted for by assuming a purely auditory rehearsal process. The question of whether the rehearsal process in fact has an ''articulatory'' component or is purely ''auditory'' has significance beyond the immediate domain of working memory, and makes contact with a number of important issues concerning phonological processing. We describe a series of experiments aimed at discriminating between the two hypotheses. Our results support an articulatory component in rehearsal, but also indicate that auditory interference plays a significant, but previously unrecognized, role in the concurrent articulation effect. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.