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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The mechanisms for maintenance of verbal information in working memory

subject

description

Working memory is a system that allows to maintain information, while performing a concurrent processing. The subvocal rehearsal (Baddeley, 1986) and the attentional refreshing (Barrouillet et al., 2007) are two mechanisms identified as playing a role in maintenance of verbal information within working memory. However, the exact nature of the interplay of these two mechanisms was little studied and remains unclear. Therefore, the purpose of our work was first to investigate the interplay of rehearsal and refreshing. In several experiments performed with young adults, the use of rehearsal and refreshing were respectively manipulated through articulatory suppression and attentional demand of the concurrent processing. In line with previous works from Camos, Lagner and Barrouillet (2009), data from our studies allows to conclude that the two mechanisms are independent and could be used jointly to maintain words. Further studies indicated that rehearsal and refreshing were independent as well for 7-8 years old children, but were not used jointly. The second purpose addressed in our work was to investigate the nature of representations involved in maintenance by rehearsal and refreshing. Therefore, the phonological properties of words to remember were manipulated through phonological similarity and words’ length, while rehearsal and refreshing involvement varied. Data revealed that rehearsal relied on phonological representations, while refreshing was independent of such representations. Results from two explorative experiments revealed that refreshing did not rely on long-term knowledge (as frequency and lexicality) and leave open the question of the representations involved by this mechanism. The data from our research bring some arguments to models of working memory assuming the involvement of both general and specific mechanisms to maintain verbal information.