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  • Marsh.et.al.24.JEP

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Changing-State Irrelevant Speech Disrupts Visual-Verbal but not Visual-Spatial Serial Recall

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  • John Marsh
  • Mark Hurlstone
  • Alexandre Marois
  • Linden Ball
  • Stuart Moore
  • Francois Vachon
  • Sabine Schlittmeier
  • Jan Roer
  • Axel Buchner
  • Frederick Aust
  • Raoul Bell
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<mark>Journal publication date</mark>8/03/2024
<mark>Journal</mark>Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
Publication StatusAccepted/In press
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

In an influential paper, Jones et al. (1995) provide evidence that auditory distraction by changing relative to repetitive auditory distracters (the changing-state effect) did not differ between a visual-verbal and visual-spatial serial recall task, providing evidence for an amodal mechanism for the representation of serial order in short-term memory that transcends modalities. This finding has been highly influential for theories of short-term memory and auditory distraction. However, evidence vis-à-vis the robustness of this result is sorely lacking. Here, two high-powered replications of Jones et al.’s (1995) crucial Experiment 4 were undertaken. In the first partial replication (n = 64), a fully within-participants design was adopted, wherein participants undertook both the visual-verbal and visual-spatial serial recall tasks under different irrelevant sound conditions, without a retention period. The second near-identical replication (n = 128), incorporated a retention period and implemented the task-modality manipulation as a between-participants factor, as per the original Jones et al. (1995; Experiment 4) study. In both experiments, the changing-state effect was observed for visual-verbal serial recall but not for visual-spatial serial recall. The results are consistent with modular and interference-based accounts of distraction and challenge some aspects of functional equivalence accounts.