Memory enhancing effects: Does a production effect exist in short-term memory tasks and if so, how does it interfere with the bootstrapping effect?
Citation
(2016) Memory enhancing effects: Does a production effect exist in short-term memory tasks and if so, how does it interfere with the bootstrapping effect?, no. 43.
Abstract
Working memory performance during a serial digit recall task has been found to
benefit from task-irrelevant additional visuospatial information in the stimulus layout,
which is called the bootstrapping paradigm (Darling and Havelka, 2010). The underlying
encoding process has been speculated to be motoric in nature (Reisberg, Rappaport and
O'Shaughnessy, 1984), and LTM-research showing the reliable and effortless benefits of
vocally producing a to-be-remembered-item (MacLeod et al., 2010) led to the hypothesis
that information that can boost working memory performance can be actively produced
by participants concurrently during a verbal serial digit recall task and have similar
encoding processes to those of the bootstrapping paradigm. In this study 32 participants
had to recall seven digits in the correct order while either (1) doing nothing, (2)
producing the digits verbally, (3) producing them manually by typing them into a keypad,
or (4) combining the latter two tasks. The analysis showed no facilitating effect of the
production-conditions. On the contrary, performance in the motor-condition was
significantly worse than in all other conditions. This specific disruptive effect could
represent an attentional focus on motor-production, and subsequent cognitive task
interference between motor-control processes and mental pattern imagery, according to
Cowan's embedded process model (1999). However, further research is needed to
replicate and explore this finding.