Homophones and synonyms in short-term memory

Illustrates differential effects of acoustic and semantic similarity on primary and secondary memory by analysis of short-term retention for sequences of 16 words containing either homophone pairs, synonym pairs, or unrelated words. After presentation of each sequence, 1 of the words in the sequence was given as a probe for S to respond with the word that followed in the sequence. Recall of early words in the lists was used to estimate the secondary memory component of short-term retention. Secondary memory was strongly decreased by semantic similarity. Recall of the most recent words in the lists provided a basis for estimation of primary memory. Primary memory was unaffected by semantic similarity, but was decreased significantly by acoustic similarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).