The Phonological Similarity Effect and The Word Length Effect: Hints for Maintenance Mechanisms in Working Memory

While in Baddeley’s Working Memory model (Baddeley, 1986), the maintenance of verbal information depends on the availability of an articulatory rehearsal mechanism, within the Time-Based Resource-Sharing model (Barrouillet et al., 2007), it depends on an attentional refreshing mechanism. The interplay of these two mechanisms was investigated in two experiments, one in adults and one in 7-year-old children. In both experiments, the phonological similarity of the words to remember, the articulatory suppression (AS) and the attentional load of concurrent processing were manipulated within a complex span paradigm. Results replicated the classic effects of phonological similarity, AS, attentional load, and the interaction Similarity x AS. More interestingly, similarity and AS never interacted with attentional load. Such findings are in agreement with our claim of independence of the two mechanisms of maintenance for verbal information, which could then be separately or jointly involved in maintenance.